


It Takes Time

by KoolJack1



Series: Keeping You Close [2]
Category: Hannibal (TV), Hannibal Lecter Series - All Media Types, Valhalla Rising
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, Captive, Crossover, Cuddling, Fight Dogs, Healing, Human Trafficking, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Muteness, Non-Consensual Drug Use, PTSD, Rape/Non-con Elements, Recovery, Scars, Slavery, Trauma, violance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-22
Updated: 2014-04-26
Packaged: 2018-01-16 13:25:48
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 5
Words: 24,655
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1349005
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KoolJack1/pseuds/KoolJack1
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When a drugged and beaten man is dumped out of a black van in Los Angles, California; the FBI is called to investigate since the man matches the description of a John Doe that was put out months earlier.</p><p>Can One-Eye and Will find a balance for the second time?</p><p>Sequel to Humane, Prequel to Accept What Is<br/>Valhalla Rising/Hannibal Crossover.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [spocktacular](https://archiveofourown.org/users/spocktacular/gifts).



> So... here it is. I fell in love with Will/One-Eye and I needed to write more. I estimate about five chapters for this one... maybe six.
> 
> Dedicated to my new beta and new friend who helped me get this one going! :)
> 
> Be prepared for more sadness. Just because it's a sequel...don't think I started liking happy endings.

Sleeping is the only way he can escape.

It's not the sleeping that's restorative and comfortable, but merely his head resting against his chest while his mind hovers somewhere between two worlds. Day in and day out they drag him to the practice ring, the starving dogs barking and growling at him when the leash him to the wooden spike in the middle. He sways on his knees and waits silently while they select a dog and release the vicious beast to come charging at him. He can hold his own for usually three, but it's always the forth that comes running and gets a chunk of his flesh. Despite being savages, the dogs are well trained and Leo barely has to say a word before they back off.

"He isn't as good as he was, Walt," Leo complains, dragging him back into the next room while his skin sings in the agony of missing flesh. Walt stares down at him when he collapses at his feet.

"The dogs aren't helping?"

"He can fight a few, but he can't handle as many as he could. It's the fifth time he's gotten bitten."

"He's fighting in five days, give him a little something to get his blood pumping."

Once he's chained back in his cell, they do just that. Leo injects something into his arm and he doesn't care enough to resist. The skin tingles and crawls with sensation as the substance works its way through his veins. He doesn't resist when they bring in a woman a few minutes after, and he tries to do what they ask of him. He can't look her in the eye when he settles on top of her, and again the urge to kiss her enters his mind. His lips burn with the urge, but when he does manage to look up at her it fizzes and dissipates. The girl under him looks frightened, but worst of all she looks young. He's happy he can't get hard, somewhere inside him he counts it as a sign of humanity that his body can't respond. He works a hand between them and strokes himself a few times with no luck, and his body tenses. The girl under him frowns up at him, and understanding when he grits his teeth and gives up and settles with the idea that he'll have to work with his soft member. His body is tense with the effort of moving gently against her, his eye foggy and distant. Leo is ruthless, and his patience wears thin of his slow movements. The pressure on his hole is startling, and he bares his teeth and shivers. He growls lowly and presses against her to get away from the increased pressure as something slips inside him. The frightened girl under him looks up at him sadly, with _pity_ when a jolt against his prostate leaves him gasping. Her hand comes up to touch his cheek when he fights, his hands clawing at the dirty floor on either side of her. His eye slips shut when it prods deep inside him again, and he's panting into her shoulder. "It's okay," she whispers when he cums, his body jerking with release.

He'd heard those words before, somewhere in his head that echoed like a dream. He doesn't realize she's taking pity on the look of pure terror reflected in his eye.

~*~*~*~

They inject him more and more, and he's a quivering mess. He bares his teeth and opens his mouth in silent cries when he's on his hands and knees over some terrified woman and they insert something in him because it speeds the process up. It hurts in ways he's never felt before; a deep ache inside his pelvis that shoots pleasure up his spine unexpectedly. In all the years of this life, he'd never felt so completely unwell. His body won't cooperate, and numerous times he swears he sees a scrawny, innocent looking man with unruly dark curls standing above him. Twice, Leo holds him down because his body convulses so badly he nearly snaps his own wrists in the tight hold of the restraints. There's something that crawls under his skin sometimes, and he struggles uselessly to free his hands so he can claw it out. His veins bulge and throb while Leo curses and pours water on his face to wash the saliva and vomit from his skin. It works how they want, he beats all five dogs. Not because he wants to, but because he thinks they'll kill him if he doesn't. He thinks he killed more, but his eyes are seeing double and the barking echoes loud and pulsating in his skull. He tries to curl up on himself when he's returned to his spot; Leo stands over him and watches him sway on his knees, dangerously close to falling over and choking himself. Leo gives him slack in the chain, just enough to rest his head on the ground. His torn and bloodied finger nails claw at the ground under him, clenching and unclenching as the drug consumes him. His jaw tenses and his body squirms uneasily with the incoherency. His mind turns and wanders, his body shaking when Leo kneels to dab the wounds from the angry dogs. His body convulses and shudders, Leo eases his taught body back to rest on his back. "The drugs will help you when it comes time to fight, you just have to relax."

The day of the fight, Leo injects him again and waits until his eye fogs over and his muscles coil. He writhes on the floor when they release him, "Pull yourself together," Leo hisses, and One-Eye stumbles to his feet and sways along besides him. His eye scans the outside of the ring; so many people and he sees them all doubled. His chin is wet with drool, Leo wipes it with a flimsy piece of fabric they tell him is a shirt. Leo runs his hands through One-Eye's hair while the man stares into space with dead eye, and he ties it back in a ponytail and out of his face. "One-Eye," he hears Leo talking to him, but he can't look away from the harsh fluorescent bulb that dangles over their heads. Leo shakes him, "Listen to me, One-Eye. You need to win this fight. This isn't to the death, just until he can't get up anymore. If you don't win, Walt is going to dispose of you." One-Eye blinks slowly up at his face, his muscles tensing when another wave of incoherency washes over him. "Do you understand what I'm telling you? Focus and the drugs will help you here."

Leo stands there and prepares him for another few minutes, and leaves once he's satisfied. He stares as the other man is chained to the post, their eyes locked. He's sweating, it drips down his face and burns his eye while the light blurs and changes colors. His jaw clenches and his arms tense, in that moment all he can feel is his own pulse throbbing when the other man charges towards him. They grapple, the other man growls when One-Eye bashes him into the post they're chained to. A swift kick to the chest sends him crashing back, and his muscles strain and bulge while his opponent lands on top of him. His hands clench and jerk, grasping at nothing when a fist crashes into his face. Paralyzed, he can't breathe or gather his strength to defend himself while the man beats his head into the ground. Each hit sends vibrations through his body and the light in the room cuts in and out of his sight while his muscles clench and spasm.

What surprises him most is how there's no pain, he feels an eerie sense of peace when he closes his eye and makes the decision that he'll let it end this way and that's okay.

Silence coats the room when the chain is yanked and the man above him is hauled backwards. He thinks he's finally dead, until someone pries his good eye open and light blinds him. He flinches away from the intrusion and bares his teeth the best he can; a dirty, metallic taste sits on his tongue. He struggles weakly against the sudden pressure of hands grasping him and he wants to fight more, yet he can only manage a hoarse grumble in his chest. "He's dusted," someone announces above him, and the bright light relents and his eye slips closed, "That's why he had a seizure."

There's a lot of commotion, but all One-Eye can make out is the wheezing breath rushing in and out of his own lungs.

~*~*~*~

"That was absolutely pathetic," Walt barks, and Leo crouches by his side and slaps his cheeks to rouse him. Leo cleaned him up without even insisting he stay on his knees, his fingers finding his pulse in his neck three times through the process to make sure he was still alive. He rinses out his mouth and tends to his fresh wounds in silence while he lays in the dirt and blinks blankly into space. "He cost me a lot of money tonight," Walt says from somewhere across the room.

"He had too much in him to be able to function," Leo grumbles back, lifting his eyelid again to check his pupil.

"He hasn't been able to fight for five months, and now he can't win," Leo already knows what he's going to say, "We need to get rid of him. No one will touch him after that, we'll have to dispose of him."

~*~*~*~

He must not be conscious for the whole trip, because one minute he's on the ground and the next minute he's on a carpet that moves beneath him. The door slides open, his hands grasping weakly at the rug under him when someone drags him towards the door and he hits the concrete with a thud before he can brace himself for the fall. He forces his eye open to see a dark black van pulling away. He's outside, he can tell because there's a breeze and the sun is beating down on his naked skin. His wrists are still chained tightly to the collar on his neck. He can't process what's happened, and he's too tired to focus on the yelling and fluttering that's now going on around him.

_Sir, can you hear me?_

_Someone call an ambulance, don't touch him?_

He slips back into the darkness.

~*~*~*~

Leo walks back into Walt's office and the man spins in his chair to face him, "Did you take care of him?"

He'll forever be haunted by the confused look in the man's unfocused eye when he rolled him out the van door, "Yes."

"You disposed of the body correctly?"

Leo swallows thickly, "Yes."

"Good, go get Lock-Jaw."

~*~*~*~

Jack Crawford's least favorite part of his job is paperwork, but that's how his down time is always spent. In a way, it's a comfort knowing that nothing more demanding and urgent requires his attention. It's good for him and his people to get some down time, especially Will. They wrapped up their last case nearly three days ago, and Alana Bloom had confirmed that Will was at all of his lectures and that she'd had lunch with him. The time off as good for him.

"Agent Crawford, you have a phone call from Los Angeles Police Department on line one." The intercom startled him from his thoughts.

"This is Jack Crawford."

"Hello, this is Harry Finch from L.A.P.D., a few months ago we got notice of a kidnaped John Doe that may had been being forced to leave the country put out by your office." The pen slips from his fingers and he inhales sharply.

One-Eye. "Yes."

"Five hours ago, we responded to a 9-1-1 call at the outer part of LA. The caller said a naked man was dumped out of a van and left on the sidewalk. First responders said the man suffered from severe trauma. He matched the description of the man in your alert, right down to the potential restraints around his neck."

Jack is already standing and putting on is coat, "I'm on the next flight out, where was he taken?"

"He went into cardiac arrest in route to the hospital, but they stabilized him and brought him to Cedars-Sinai. I recognized him from the description of his left eye."

"Thank you, officer. I'll contact your office when I land."

~*~*~*~

Of all his dogs, Winston was the one that was most attached to him. Will didn't mind, of course, except when Winston found himself well into the mud of the water where Will was fishing. It always resulted in a bath for both of them, because even Will didn't want muddy feet tracked into the house. His or his dog's. Not only was Winston the first dog to get dirty, he was also the one that enjoyed baths the most. Arm deep in soapy water, Will rinsed the dog's strange colored fur before toweling him off on the front porch. "Much better."

Turning around to see Jack's car pulling up behind his own car sent a shiver down his spine- for Jack to call him was one thing, but it must be of grave importance for the man to drive all the way out here to speak to him. The look on Jack's face when he gets out of the car tells him he's right.

Will frowns at him and stands when Jack approaches, three of the dogs running down to greet him. "What is it, Jack?"

"I just got a call form Los Angeles Police Department. They got a call about a severely beaten male that was dumped in the city. First responders reported the victim was a white male with mutilation to the left side of his face." Will's mouth goes dry and the towel drops from his hands.

It takes him a moment to find his voice, "Is he…he's dead?" A chill has him shiver, and he's ready to convince himself that it would be for the better; that the man would suffer for the rest of his life if he hadn't died. Death would be a comfort, and at least five months of wondering what terrible fate the man had been forced into would be over. They could all find peace. One-Eye could finally rest without the constant torment that gripped him. Will could find a way to be okay with that.

Jack shakes his head, "No. He was touch and go for awhile but they stabilized him. He's at a hospital in LA. I came to get you, I have us on a flight that leaves in a little over an hour."


	2. Chapter 2

Alana, Jack, and Will are kept in the hallway while the doctors decide what to do. Jack had explained the entire situation to anyone who asked while Will stood quietly with Alana at his side. They had brought her along to observe what state of mind the man was in. A doctor comes over to them after nearly a half hour, "We put him in a room by himself. He was awake on and off, but when he is he is very aggressive and irritated. He had a seizure, and we had to treat him for a fever to bring it down."

Will swallows convulsively and frowns, "What was causing it?"

"We found very high levels of Phencyclidine in his blood, we think it's whats causing his symptoms."

Alana lets out a breath and Will scratches his face, "You think he was being drugged with PCP?"

"The blood work confirmed it."

Jack turned to Will, "Maybe they were trying to make him more violent," then to the doctor, "We need to see him." 

The doctor glares at him, "Withdrawal is an extremely dangerous process, we don't need him being more agitated than he already is."

Will speaks up before Jack can argue more, "Him and I were close before this happened, I might be able to help him calm down." 

The young doctor nods reluctantly and leads Will to the room. His heart is high in his throat when he sees the man. He's gasping for air, the veins in his arm bulging from the skin with the tension of being held down. He stares up at the ceiling with a distant, unseeing eye. His muscles shake under his skin, even the ones in his face. "We've tried multiple times to explain to him he's in a hospital, but this type of drug is known for confusing people. He's having a hard time grasping reality."

"Are the restraints necessary? He was held captive for a long time…" Will's voice cracks and he clears his throat.

"We're aware, we cut a collar off his neck. He kept scratching at his own skin; we had to keep his hands still." There's a dark bruise where the collar dug into his skin, the tendons in his neck protruding out from the tainted flesh. Will absorbs the lost look on the man's face, and he sees he isn't really here, he can't make _sense_ of where he is right now.

One-Eye blinks slowly and his head jerks when his mind reconnects to his sight. His eye darts around the room, his hands balled into tight fists. Will takes a step closer and the movement attracts One-Eye's attention. Will frowns when the man shies away from him, his eye darting away. Will takes a step closer, standing where the man will see him. "I'm real, I'm here. Do you remember me?" He can't deny it would hurt if he didn't.

One-Eye wants him gone, it's obvious by the way the man yanks at his arms and bares his teeth. The man on the bed strains to get closer, his teeth clenched and his eye wild; Will can practically feel the sharp teeth pierce his flesh. He hadn't been this out of control the first time, and Will feels bile in his throat at the thought of how much worse things got for him. "They drugged you, One-Eye. You're confused, but in a few days that will pass."

A cold sweat breaks out on One-Eye's face and he gets no warning before the man turns his head and vomits. Nothing comes up with his dry heaves besides water, and Will's own stomach cramps with pain. The doctor intervenes again, "That's enough for right now, you're making this worse for him," she chides before she calls for a nurse to help her clean the man up.

Her words strike a cord and he backs out of the room, and he doesn't realize there are tears in his eyes until Alana hands him a tissue. "He's out of it, Jack."

"He's detoxing, Will. That accompanied with the trauma he's gone through- he just needs time. Let him withdraw and calm down," Alana soothes, her hand resting on his back. "Let's go to a hotel nearby and get some rest and come back in the morning."

Jack stays behind to speak with the doctor, and Will reluctantly goes because his company could only make things worse. "He's going to be alright?" Jack questions uncertainly, standing outside the door and watching the man on the bed twist and turn.

"He was very high when he found him, he came down and now he has to deal with the symptoms of being off the drug. It's hard for us to ease it for him seeing as we don't know his allergies and if he has been given anything that will react badly to medication. I would have mistaken him for a junkie, that's how bad it was when he came in. Believe it or not, what you're seeing now is normal and he's relatively stable," the doctor turns and leaves the room and Jack follows, "His mental state is making it worse, they did terrible things to this man. He had semen on him, and it was his own. We ran a rape kit while he was out- he had anal tearing." Jack doesn't blink, but his chest tightens. That hadn't been the case the first time he was found. "He was already paranoid and anxious, and now the drugs are making it worse."

The doctor pauses, but continues when Jack can only manage silence, "We tried calming him down. A nurse sat with him and read, she tried humming too. We haven't tried to touch him again after she tried wiping his skin with a damp rag and he started thrashing. I don't know if it's better or worse that he isn't screaming, usually they scream but he hasn't made any noise. The nurses are distraught over it," she says uneasily, fiddling with her pen.

For the first time in his career, Jack feels ill.

~*~*~*~

The following week is hard, One-Eye struggles every second. Will tries to stay out of sight, but he can't help but think the man will realize who he is and stop being so afraid of him. When he manages to sleep, Will hovers and watches him closely. One-Eye shivers and breathes shallowly, and Will gets the nurse to bring another blanket to wrap around the man on the bed. Will can't watch them insert a feeding tube down his throat when One-Eye won't eat on his own, and he can't listen to the retching and gagging when the food comes back up. One-Eye can't be awake when they change him or wash him, he won't allow the process to go smoothly. Will stands closer when he's out, his hands stroking his forehead while the nurses work around him.

It seems to go on forever, but just when Will really starts to think it _will_ go on forever; it starts to get better. He notices it when One-Eye startles awake, and his eye looks clearer. He ignores Will, but at least he looks more aware of his surroundings. The nurses notice too, and they give him a chance to eat on his own again. One-Eye does, slowly. Will murmurs encouragement when he chokes down the food. Alana and Jack pass by the door every once in awhile, but they never come in and Will doesn't go out. He stays perched in the small couch on the room, and once the nurses realized he wasn't leaving, they even supplied a blanket and pillow.

It's nine days since all this started when One-Eye looks over at Will and sees him. Will looks…terrible. His hair is shaggy and his eyes are dark with lack of sleep. Despite the terrible worry that had consumed him since all this began, he still smiles at One-Eye when he looks at him. "You look like you're feeling a little better." One-Eye blinks at him slowly, repositioning himself on the bed enough that the soft cuffs on his wrists tug. "You've been really sick, I don't know how much of the past week you remember but we weren't even sure you were going to live at first."

One-Eye tries to gather memories of what had gone on recently, but only sees snaps of moments and sensations. Terrible cramps, delirious thoughts that there's no way Will could be in the room, Will was dead. He remembered being hot and cold at the same time, and the walls melting around him. He remembers not being able to move, despite how hard his muscles strained. Will leans forward, and One-Eye stares at him and tries to make sense of how he could possibly be here. Walt had killed Will because of him- was Will even real? He was _dreaming_ this. Will would haunt his mind and he'd never be free of the crushing feeling of the man that made him feel like a person.

One-Eye's breathing speeds up and his brows pull together in thought, and Will reaches forward to touch his restrained hand. One-Eye's fingers jerk when they touch, but Will ignores it and slowly wraps his hand around the other man’s. One-Eye stares at their joined hands, and Will rubs his thumb back and forth. "It's alright. I'm real, this is real and I'm here. I can't imagine how frustrating it must be not being able to talk, but I understand you," he whispers in comfort, and One-Eye looks up at him and Will smiles slightly.

One-Eye remembers kissing Will, the way his soft lips gave under his. The way Will let him jerk them off, the way he kissed his ruined flesh and looked at him like he was a human being.

Will chuckles slightly, and One-Eye realized he was staring at Will's lips. "I can't kiss you here, it would look bad. When you're better though…" One-Eye licks his lips and forces himself to look away. He rolls his shoulders and winces at the stiffness. "I'm going to go get a nurse."

~*~*~*~

The nurse had released his arms, and suggested he walk, and Will excused himself while the catheter was removed. He returned to find One-Eye standing stiffly, and Will rested a hand on his back when he took slow steps. One-Eye's mouth was pressed into a firm line, and Will could tell he hated this. He hated taking stiff, unbalanced steps because he hated being vulnerable. His instincts demanded he was always ready to fight- and right now there was nothing he could do to defend himself. Will walks beside him, his arm around his waist. One-Eye is shaking slightly by the time they make it down the hall, his muscles quivering with the effort of staying upright. Will feels the tension in his body and turns to press his lips to One-Eye's left ear, "You're doing so good," he encourages, but he pulls away when he feels One-Eye turn his face to seek out his lips. Instead, Will smiles at him and helps him back to his room. To One-Eye it doesn't matter, because he still isn't completely sure what's real, he isn't sure Will isn't a figment of his very sick mind. It doesn't matter because he feels so good like this, with Will's arm firmly around his waist. If this is all in his head, he's okay with living here like this forever. They could destroy his body, but here his mind was always safe.

"You look much better," his doctor says when they come back. Her eyes linger on Will when his hand lingers just a moment too long. "You had a rough week."

Will clears his throat when the silence lingers, "He doesn't talk."

She nods and reaches for his eye to check his pupil, One-Eye tenses but stays still while the fingers prod his jaw and his throat. "Is it alright that Mr. Graham stays while I examine you?" One-Eye glances over at Will then lets his eye close in acceptance. The doctor makes quick work of examining his chest, her hands professionally indifferent to the scars and tattoos that taint his skin, "You're probably sore, but if there's still pain in a few days you have to let us know." Will watches silently as her fingers massage his ribs and prod his belly. One-Eye breathes deeply and relaxes, even when she lifts the sheets and checks on his lower half. Will doesn't look away from the man's face, and One-Eye takes comfort in Will watching him. "We're going to take some blood so we can run some tests, see if everything balanced out again."

One-Eye stares up at the ceiling when a nurse comes to draw the blood, and the doctor asks to speak to Will in the hallway. He doesn't want to leave the room, but he goes anyway. "Physically, he's doing much better. He should recover with a few more scars. Mentally, he's going to need a lot of help."

"Would he be able to function again normally? We didn't get a chance to really get him help when we first found him…" Will trails off, frowning slightly.

"I saw the records from his first examinations months ago, there was no signs of drug use or sexual assault-"

Will interjects and he inhales sharply, "Sexual assault?"

"I told agent Crawford, we found signs of anal tearing."

Will shivers and runs a hand through his hair, "Oh God… We don't even know his _name,_ or anything about him to try to find a family member..."

She reaches out and puts a hand on his arm in comfort, he twitches when she touches him, "There's programs that help people through things like this, even if he doesn't speak," she hesitates only a second before adding, "And he has you."

~*~*~*~

Will buys an apple for One-Eye when he leaves the room so they can help him wash, because the nurses wouldn't appreciate him lingering while they bathe the other man.

He comes back to find One-Eye sitting up, and Will grins at him when his eye lights up upon seeing the apple.

One-Eye munches it happily, and Will sits and watches, "When you're released, do you want to come back to Virginia with me?" He hesitates, then adds, "You're in California right now. There are programs for people who… have things to work through. You could stay here or go back with me, or go to a place closer to my house. Or stay at my house again, out-patient… It's just something to think about, I'm not sure when it'll be alright for you to leave," He trails off and wipes his hand over his face.

One-Eye stares at him curiously. He hadn't given much thought to where he was right now, or where he'd go. He'd go anywhere Will went, even if there was somewhere else for him to be. He takes another bite of the fruit without breaking eye contact with Will and wishes the other man didn't look so sad.

~*~*~*~

Will doesn't leave the hospital and no one asks him to. One-Eye silently accepts his presence and Will tries his best to keep the man's attention. He brings Suduko from the newspaper and explains the game before daring to move to the edge of the bed so they could both look at the paper together. One-Eye never makes a move to point out any numbers, but Will can tell by the concentrated look on his face that he's solving it in his head.

No one bothers him or Will, nurses simply come to bring him food or help him wash. They bring in medication and suggest walks, and he tenses his jaw at how they never seem to address Will. It confuses him how he can't tell if the man is really there or not. There's no way for him to know if the next time he opens his eye that he's not going to be chained tightly and beaten. He tries to focus on Will while he has him, because he'll need the memories if he'll live any longer. Will soothes him, he keeps the intense urges inside him to resist the care of the nurses and the comfort of the hospital bed. The persistent beeping of the machines makes his skin itch and multiple times he wants to smash them. If Will wasn't here, he would.

Once he's asleep, he dreams of Walt and Leo standing over him while he's chained in his own vomit and growling like a rabid animal. He growls and strains to reach them, effectively cutting off his own airways. Leo whips his back and his muscles tense and ripple and he snarls and tucks his head down chokes for air when the whip cracks against his shoulder blade again and his body spasms at the sensation. A third and a forth and his restrained hands clench and his body screams for air but he can't make himself stop trying to pull away.

When his eye opens again, Will is standing over him hushing him and holding onto his arms. A nurse comes running in and he realizes the annoying beeping is quicker when she fiddles with the machine. "You had a nightmare, it's okay," Will whispers to him, and he blinks up in confusion and pulls a hand out of Will's to touch his throat. Despite there being no collar, he wishes he knew if he had just woken up or just passed out. When Will's hand gently strokes his hair, he decides it doesn't matter.

~*~*~*~

A few days later, Will feels irrationally over protective of One-Eye when Alana comes to visit, even though she holds up some bags and smiles. "I'm not sure if you remember me, but I'm Doctor Alana Bloom. We met before," One-Eye rolls his head to look at her instead of the ceiling and then at the bags in her hands, "I took the liberty of getting you some of your own clothes. I estimated the sizes but I can always exchange them." The silence lingers in the room and Alana looks up at Will just for a second before putting the bags down and pulling a chair closer. "It's difficult for us to gauge what's going on with you since you don't talk, but I brought a board for that. When I point to a letter and it's the right one, just give me a sign that it is."

She maneuvers the board and Will watches in silence, "What is your name?" Will decides to let it play out, even though he can feel One-Eye won't respond. He doesn't, and she hesitates after going through all the letters before putting the board down. "That's okay, we'll work on it. I'll tell you what we do know. We know a man named Walt had an organization that you were held captive for and forced to fight, and we know a lot of what was done to you there. You were drugged when the police found you, you're lucky to be alive." One-Eye looks over at Will, and all he can think is if the other man knows that they know about the sexual assault. He wonders if Alana will bring it up. "We haven't found Walt yet, but we're working on it. You'll be released from the hospital soon and it'll be your choice what you want to do from there." Alana isn't discouraged by his silence that follows, and she smiles at him despite his neutral glare, "Will has no intentions of leaving, so you won't be alone."  
~*~*~*~

"Agent Crawford, we may have gotten a hit on the black van," one of the officers informs him. Alana had flown back a few days ago, but Crawford wanted to stay around until they got some leads on Walt. "We interviewed a few people who saw your John Doe left on the sidewalk, someone remembered a few of the plate numbers. It's registered to an Alex Nash, but it was reported stolen nearly two weeks ago."

"We need to find that van."


	3. Chapter 3

Jack doesn't knock before he enters, and One-Eye tenses enough that Will picks up on it and stands, "Hello, Jack."

Crawford nods at both of them, "We got a hit on the black van, but we can't locate it yet. In the meantime, I want him transferred back in Virginia and away from California. Until we have some leads, it's best that he isn't in California."

Will looks from Jack to One-Eye, and the man's eye has landed on the wall across the room. It unsettles Will that the man has no opinion on his own life, he'd had it taken away from him. "Would he have to stay at a hospital or could I bring him home?"

The word home attracts One-Eye's attention and he looks over at Will again. Every part of his wanted to go to Will's, except he wasn't sure he could handle being there again if he'd have to wake up eventually. The memories would tease him like water in a desert, he wasn't sure they'd bring comfort when… "Hey," Will whispers soothingly. One-Eye's breathing had started to grow shallow, lost in thoughts Will couldn't imagine. Jack had already left to go talk to the man's doctor, yet One-Eye hadn't looked away from the wall. "It's okay, just focus on my voice." He waits until One-Eye gathers himself before he speaks again, "The doctor said you wouldn't have to stay at a hospital in Virginia, you could stay at my house. You're wounds are closed up and your fever is gone, you don't need supervised professional care. My classes are covered so I wouldn't leave you."

The look on Will's face makes him decide it doesn't matter if any of this isn't real, because he'll be with Will and that's all he wants. In a fleeting thought, it crosses his mind to let someone beat his skull in so he can't wake up anymore, so he doesn't have to live anywhere but here.

Will smiles slightly, smiling wider when One-Eye's face twitches in an attempt to smile back.

~*~*~*~

Jack arranges for a flight in first class in the front, they'll board last and depart first. Will doesn't let on about the uneasy feeling he has about bringing One-Eye around so many people. Jack assures him they won't have to go through the crowded airport, he called ahead and arranged for that too. Despite the precautions, Will still worries when One-Eye dresses in some of the clothes Alana got him and stands there while everyone talks around him. "I'm going to stay here until we get some more information on the whereabouts of Walt," Jack informs him then.

"I prescribed him some medication to help with anxiety along with a mild sedative for the flight and some sleeping medication for when it's time for bed," One-Eye's doctor hands the medication to Will in a bag, "Give him the sedative when you get to the airport, and it will really start to take affect when you board." Will thanks her quietly, watching One-Eye sit in the wheelchair they provided him.

They're escorted to the airport, their escorts handle their one bag of luggage while, One-Eye sits stone still besides him for the entire ride. "There's going to be people here and on the plane, I'll be with you the entire time. Just focus on me and they don't matter," Will murmurs gently, but he doesn't say anything else for the entire trip.

Will shakes the sedative from the bottle and hands it to One-Eye when they pull up. He takes it obediently, and stays close enough to Will that they bump into each other with each step. Car horns blare and there's people walking in all directions. One-Eye searches his memory for a moment in his life when he'd seen this before, and can only recover a glimpse of walking through a crowd holding someone's sticky hand. Will holds his elbow and leads him behind their escorts. He can feel people staring at his face, at his eye as they pass and he ducks his head. He remembers looking at it in the bathroom, Will's bathroom, and recalls how ugly his face had become since he'd last seen it.

He doesn't realize they'd stopped walking and that he'd brought his fingers up to touch the ruined skin of his left eye until Will gently grasps his wrist and brings it down from his face. "Let's go in the bathroom," he suggests, and he's led into a small bathroom. It's quiet, instantly he feels better behind the closed door. "People don't understand, they don't mean to stare at you," Will says after a minute. He turns on the tap at the sink and rinses his face with cold water, and One-Eye mimics the action. "There's nothing to be ashamed of, it doesn't make you ugly," Will reassures quietly, "It only makes you different, and people can't handle different." He knows that all too well. He looks up in the mirror and looks at the destroyed skin of his left eye and the ring of bruises around his neck, faded but still obvious enough that people can see what he is. They look at him and know what he is, can they see him on his knees growling like a chained animal? Are they afraid?

Will turns to dry his hands, but One-Eye grabs his arm to turn him back. Will can't even follow what's happening before his lips are captured in a brutal kiss. Will melts into it, even as he's backed up against the wall of the employee bathroom and pinned there. One-Eye kisses him like a drowning man in need of air, Will senses the need to confirm he's a human being, a grasp at reality. He wonders how many times the man had been confused about who he was, or even _what_ he was. Will imagined him restrained, hungry, and in pain; wracking his brain for any recollection of who he was, what he was, where he was and how long he'd been there, even how he'd gotten there. Will pulled back from the kiss and frowned, "I'm not sure if you're trying to tell me what you're feeling, or convince yourself that it's real."

One-Eye looked away from him and took a step back, frowning at the ground. He doesn't know which is true, he doesn't know; he doesn't know anything except everything is wrong. He's wrong, everything about him is wrong. Will watches frustration flicker across the stoney features, and he frowns in return, "Your nickname is One-Eye, I'm Will Graham. We're both at LAX airport in California. You've been in the hospital for just about two weeks, and we're going to fly back to my house in Virginia. You've been there before. You might feel a little hazy because I gave you some medication so you can relax on the flight. There's a lot of commotion, it might be overwhelming and that's okay," he explains in detail. One-Eye looks back up at him again, searching Will's face for something. His lips tingle with the warmth from their kiss and he wonders if he's even creative enough to craft such a realistic delusion in his damaged mind. Maybe his skull had been fractured and his body was in a vegetable state while his mind drifted to somewhere he could still be alive. He'd seen someone get their head crushed in, the crunch of the bone had made his stomach turn. The man had lived, his brain too damaged for him to ever be truly alive again. Walt had shot him in the back of the head, mercifully. One-Eye remembered flinching at the echoing sound of the gunfire and cringing when the blood splattered against his face.

Will waves his hand in front of One-Eye's face until the man blinks back into awareness and lowers his hand from where it had started feeling around the side of his head. "You keep getting lost, what are you thinking about?" Will muses aloud, perfectly aware he won't receive an answer. 

The door opens then, "Mr. Graham, we need to get you both on the plane."

~*~*~*~

They board with no further incidents, and One-Eye grows more and more sluggish as they get seated. Will buckles his lap belt and looks over and One-Eye clumsily attempts to do his own, his fingers struggling to coordinate with the medication. Will helps him, and they sit in silence until the plane starts to back away from the gate. He notices One-Eye's knuckles have gone white with his grip on the armrest as they taxi for take off. He rests his own hand on the back of One-Eye's and rubs his thumb over the strained ridges, "It's okay," he whispers.

The two words calm the uncomfortable feeling constricting his chest and he inhales deeply, "Close your eyes and rest," Will instructs him quietly, and he does just that- focusing on the warm thumb rubbing the scarred skin on his hand.

~*~*~*~

Will wakes him up once they've landed, happy he only stirred once through the whole trip. The only time he'd woken up was when the plane jolted with turbulence. One-Eye startled and instinctively reached for Will, grasping the sleeve of his jacket tightly until the plane settled into a smooth ride once again. He manages to settle back to sleep again on his own, but his fingers hold their grip on the fabric on Will's arm anyway. One-Eye follows him from the plane as soon as the flight attendant gives the okay, and two agents wait for them just beyond the gates with their luggage. One-Eye still looks tired the entire drive to Will's home, and Will leaves him to doze in the seat next to him while the agents drive silently in the front. He's glad Jack had driven them to the office and arranged a ride for them to the airport because he really didn't feel like driving right now. He felt as tired as One-Eye looked, the previous weeks events finally taking their toll on him.

Will quietly thanks the men for the ride, and One-Eye stands next to him as they both watch the black SUV drive away. "How are you feeling?" Will asks without looking up, but he can feel One-Eye turn his attention to him. Will looks out into the darkness that covers the fields around his house, and the shadows of the trees beyond them, then he looks up to admire the shine of the stars. One-Eye follows his gaze and looks up with him, and he squints up at the stars overhead and recalls one moment of trying to count them. Had he ever tried to count them?

"Meeting you has really made me appreciate the little things, like having the freedom to look up at the night sky and absorb the vastness of it. I don't think I ever let myself really enjoy it before," he admits quietly, stealing a glance at the man next to him to find him looking up at the sky as well. "I'm sorry I left that day," he swallows the lump in his throat, "I wish every day that I hadn't." That's when One-Eye looks at him again, and Will only looks into his eye more a moment before he looks down at the dirt between them again.

One-Eye wants to reach out and touch him, he wants to look into the bright color of his eyes and see his reflection in them. The moment is broken when Will lifts their bag up and heads towards the house, the other man follows slowly behind him. Will doesn't give it much thought when he unlocks the door and opens it, but when he realizes it might not be the best idea for the dogs to come running out, it's too late.

One-Eye takes a step back when the dogs come to greet the familiar face, and Will hides his shock when the man growls at them. One-Eye blinks and theres dogs running at him behind his eyelids, and when he opens his eye again, one is jumping up on his leg. Will watches his hands curl into fists and he drops their luggage to pull the dog off. "It's okay," he reassures, but One-Eye jumps when he gets too close and there's a wild look in his eye just before he shoves Will back. He stumbles over the dogs and lands hard on the wood of the porch, and he only has a second to catch his breath before One-Eye is on him. The first punch hits him in the cheek, but the next he blocks with his arm while his other comes up to grab a fistful of the man's hair. The dogs growl and bark, coming in closer in distress. One-Eye looks up from him and Will 'tsks' at the dogs to stay put and they whine in protest. "One-Eye, look at me. It's me, Will," he grunts, shoving at the man's chest to get him off.

White ringing deafens him and One-Eye flinches at the throbbing in his skull right behind his left eye. He grunts and releases Will to clutch the side of his face when the throbbing gets worse. He squeezes his good eye shut and rubs at the left one in an attempt to ease the pain that flared up behind it. Leo stands over him, and the pain shoots through his face so fast he can't stop squirming, his fingers clutching at the dirty ground under him. He whines like the dogs do when he breaks their legs, and he tries to bring his hands up to cover his face but the chains hold his arms in place. Something solid collides with his temple again and the world narrows and he turns his head to see blood pool under his head. It pools under his head and there's chunks of skull and hair and _brain_ spilling from his head. How is he still alive and aware? His wrists strain to touch his face, but his fingers are just long enough to brush his chin and his body jerks and spasms.

Will watches it happen, he can physically see the confusion rush over One-Eye as rubs at his face and lets him go. He isn't afraid, even though his face aches; he's instantly more concerned with the way the man above him folds in on himself and collapses back onto the porch. Will sits up and 'tsks' at the dogs again, watching when One-Eye cradles his head and bares his teeth, seeing something terrible behind his closed eye. Will's own hands shake with emotion, his face aching from more than just the punch. He gets to his knees and crawls closer, his heart pounding with anxiety when One-Eye's right hand leaves his head to press into his mouth and he _bites_. It muffles the agonized grumbling from his chest; Will worries he'll bite through his fingers when he digs his other fingers into the ruined flesh of his left eye. Will debates just a second before firmly taking hold of his arms. The response is instantaneous, One-Eye growls and shoves him back, his eye is vicious and wild when he opens it. Will raises his hands in a passive gesture, "It's okay, take it easy." They stare at each other, One-Eye's breathing loud and uneven in the otherwise silent environment, even the dogs have fallen silent. One-Eye's gaze travels from Will to the dogs to the surrounding porch, his uncertainty apparent in the way he looks around like he just got here.

There's no puddle of blood seeping into the ground under him, One-Eye takes note. He reaches up to touch his ear to confirm his brain mass isn't oozing from his crushed skull, and his fingers touch sweaty hair instead. His head still hurts, but in a distant and less crippling way. It's Will that solidifies that this is his reality right now, and he can't explain what has changed but Will seems solid.

Will smiles soothingly, taking the initiative by firmly taking One-Eye's hands and standing. Will listens to his uneven breathing while One-Eye obeys the silent direction to stand, and he slowly leads the man towards the house. One-Eye follows just like he's been trained, he keeps himself compliant and loose when Will leads him back inside. A fleeting thought crosses his mind that Will could easy snap his wrists, and he tenses and backs away from him. He wants his arms closer to his body, he'll take restraints over having his wrists held by other hands. His eye falls on the spot at the foot of the bed- the spot he'd found comforting in a time far away in his memories.

Will feels the slightest of pulls when One-Eye tugs his wrists away, and Will lets him go because he isn't here to force the man to do anything. As soon as he's free, One-Eye retreats back to the spot he used to occupy months earlier. One-Eye folds his long body in half and sits on his knees, he tries not to blink because Leo is behind his eyelids tugging at the collar around his neck until he's flat on his back and they're beating his head. The collar is too tight, so tight it's crushing his windpipe and making him choke.

One-Eye sits silently at the foot of the bed, staring into space. Will sits on the couch and frowns at him, waiting for the man to come back to himself. He breathes heavily, flinching when Winston whines and Will gets up to shut the front door, leaving the dogs behind the screen. One-Eye touches his left eye with trembling fingers, and Will takes a few tentative steps towards him. The heavy breathing morphs to uneven gasping, and Will swallows down the rising tide of panic in his throat that isn't his own. One-Eye bares his teeth and tenses, Will crouches then to prevent from seeming so threatening. "Easy," he coos gently, frowning when the distant stare is redirected to him, and the fingers touching his face travel down to brush against his throat. The fingertips paw slightly at the discolored skin of his neck, and Will tilts his head, "There's nothing around your neck," he reassures, inching closer. He absorbs the look of uncertainty on One-Eye's face when he flattens his hand out on his own throat. "Are you trying to tell me you can't breathe?"

He gets confirmation when the wet gasps turn to struggled puffs; Will inches close enough to grasp One-Eye's wrists to ease his hands down. "You're having a panic attack, breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth," he instructs, smiling reassuringly when the distressed man struggles to comply. One-Eye closes his mouth and tries to breathe through his nose, reaching for Will and taking a hold of his shirt. "Good," he whispers, and he lets his hand cup One-Eye's cheek in comfort. His eye slips closed, and he turns his head to brush his nose against the inside of Will's wrist, where he inhales deeply. 

The panic that had consumed his insides like a storm surge against a shore quiets and recedes slowly, leaving him feeling tired and worn. The world settles on its axis again, and the images that bombarded him cruelly fade from violent, realistic snapshots to flashes that present themselves behind his eyelids fleetingly. Panic is so real, so alive and consuming; a feeling he's foreign to too such an extent. Now he can't escape it, it sneaks up on him and grasps his throat with unforgiving strength. He only realizes he's melted against Will where feels the man shift.

With his eye closed, One-Eye had leaned forward on his knees and rested against Will bonelessly. Will had never been good with comfort or affection, but it feels almost natural the way he brings his arms up to hold the man to his chest, stroking through his hair soothingly. They stay like that for a few minutes, until Will feels it would do good for the man to lay down.

One-Eye's chest vibrates with a silent noise of protest when Will hauls them both up to stand. "We are going to lay on the bed, I just have to let the dogs in." He pushes the dazed form onto the bed before he lets the dogs in and ushers them down the hall and shuts them into the back room. The pendulum swings once and he remembers the last time they were locked in there as if he was here when it happened.

He comes back to find One-Eye had discarded his shirt, and Will frowns at the new scars on his back, the ones he'd worked to heal with clean bandages and care- now raised and rough marks. The effort was wasted. On a whim Will pulls his own over his head and climbs into the bed under the covers, "Come," he instructs, and the other body comes to lay in front of him. He tucks the blanket around One-Eye when he burrows himself into his chest and threads his fingers through the long hair that tickles his skin. One-Eye burrows into the warmth of his chest in such a way he won't let himself associate with the way his dogs curl up against him. "It takes time, you know. Healing. But you will, I'll help you," Will whispers into the silence, his finger tips tracing the long, vivid array of scars on One-Eye's back and shoulders. He touches each mark he can feel, wishing the gentleness could sooth the violence that caused them. He's thinner then he was, he can feel his spine and count his ribs on his sides. He supposed the weight loss had been a result of drugs and malnourishment, in fact he seemed all around smaller. Weaker.

He considers how he'll talk to Alana about these episodes he has, he wonders if there will be anything they can do to stop them. He knows he'll have to get up and feed the dogs, and he doesn't think One-Eye will be able to sleep without the help of medication but for now it's alright to just lay here.

~*~*~*~

"I'm curious," Walt says calmly, "Why word got back to me that One-Eye was found in the middle of a busy street _alive_."

Leo didn't look up from Lock-Jaw, who was whining in pain and muttering deliriously. "And I'm curious as to why they have identified the black van that dropped him there." There's a brief silence before Walt grabs him and throws him back, "I fucking warned you, Leo. I warned you not to fuck with me. You have a job to take care of my dogs and dispose of them when I need them disposed of. You don't get to decide their fate."

Leo stares up at the man from the ground, "If I could quit, I would. What now, Walt? You kill me and dump me like the rest? Where does it end? It was my fault he lost, he overdosed."

Walt stares at him in silence for nearly a minute, "No Leo, I'm not going to kill you. I know for a fact that Will Graham character won't stop until we are found, so to make this go away- you're going to find a way to shut him up and point them elsewhere."


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So... I know where I want to go with this. It might need a sixth chapter but I'm not sure how I'm going to get there yet so...
> 
> Yes.
> 
> I'm in love with our show btw. Hannibal is just such a perfect character no spoilers but that sheep is my favorite character.
> 
> Anyway, had to get that out since technically Hannibal isn't in this story and I miss writing about him.

Will scrambles eggs the next morning, waiting for the moment One-Eye would wake up and wander into the kitchen. The sleeping pills he was given this time must have been stronger, he'd hadn't so much as twitched after they took affect the previous night. After they had laid down for awhile, Will had suggested he try seeing the dogs again. This wouldn't work if One-Eye was too afraid of them now. When he let them out, One-Eye sat completely still while they sniffed him and wagged their tails. Will couldn't hide his relief when One-Eye brushed his fingers down Winston's nose. Will had insisted on a shower and that One-Eye change into pajama pants before he gave him the pills, then he was asleep within minutes. He'd taken up his place on the couch again, dozing off for a few hours before he got up to make them something to eat when the sky outside got brighter. The skin around his right eye was darkened with a bruise, not badly but enough that it looked painful.

He was transferring the eggs to plates when he heard the dogs move around in the next room and a moment later, One-Eye stood in the doorway. "I made you eggs," he informed him with a smile, but One-Eye was focused on the mark on his face. It held his attention as he came closer, reaching out slowly to touch the bruised skin. "It's okay, it was an accident. You didn't mean to hurt me," Will reassures; One-Eye's hand falls away from his face and his eye drops to the floor between them and Will knows he feels guilty.

They eat in silence, and it's not the comfortable kind either. It's tense, and Will is glad when his phone rings and he gets up to answer it.

"Hello?"

"It's Jack, we found the van that One-Eye was dumped from. There was multiple blood types found on the carpet, we're having them each tested out here. We found three from victims we found months ago. I need you to go to the lab with One-Eye and let them take a sample from him so we can identify which came from him."

~*~*~*~

One-Eye followed him closely when they entered the building, never lifting his gaze from the floor as he trusted Will to guide him in the right direction. Everyone they passed stared at them, it even put Will on edge. They look One-Eye up and down, obviously not expecting him to be searing the simple blue button down and blue jeans that make him seem so utterly normal. "They're just going to swab your mouth so they have your DNA to match it to stains they found in the van," he explained when they opened the door to the lab. Katz, Zeller, and Price all looked up at once when they entered, all three of their eyes drawn right to One-Eye. The silence covered the room uncomfortably until Will cleared his throat, "This is Beverly, Jimmy, and Brian." One-Eye looked up and sized each of them up as they were introduced. Beverly broke their stares with a small smile, which gave Jimmy the hint to look away and Brian's eyes lingered just a moment longer before he did the same. Will frowned, all too aware that they'd interrupted a conversation that must have been about them.

"Hey, nice shiner Will," Beverly joked when she came around the table, "And nice to finally meet you." One-Eye wasn't tense when she approached to swab his mouth, and he opened his mouth without hesitation. "Jack has been sending us samples they picked up from the black van. We have blood and saliva from earlier victims, plus three unidentified samples, I'm assuming his will leave us with two. He found a few hairs too, and semen; haven't made a match with those yet." She informed Will while she packaged the sample.

"California has it's own crime lab."

Zeller rolled his eyes, "You know how Jack is." Indeed he did. "They also found multiple sets of handcuffs, a whip, a carving knife, and blindfolds," he read off a paper, and Will swallowed thickly.

"Sounds like someone made a stop at a sex shop," Price commented.

"You'd know all about that," Zeller replied, and Price winked at him.

"Alright, thanks for the images," Beverly smiled in apology at Will and One-Eye, "I'm sure Jack will be calling you when we know more."

~*~*~*~*~

He'd left the van where he knew the police would find it, and sat in the airport parking lot watching the planes take off. Leo held a one way trip ticket to Virginia that Walt had given him. He didn't want to know why the ticket was only one way. When he had left the warehouse, he'd been conflicted. He knew the trip was to kill Will Graham and One-Eye, even though One-Eye didn't talk and wouldn't be able to provide information about them. One-Eye was far too mentally gone to even possess the ability to communicate information about Walt and they both knew it. There was no point in killing either of them. There was really no point in doing any of this.

He didn't get anything except food and a place to stay to take care of these men. He'd spent years doing it simply because he couldn't get out. There was no way to leave the underground world of human trafficking and fighting unless you were leaving in a body bag. Walt had sent him to kill these two innocent men, and it was either that or he kills Leo himself. It was too late already, once Walt heard the van had been discovered right in the open- Leo would be a dead man even if he killed them both. There was another way out, even if that way out didn't lead to freedom. It did lead to salvation, and doing the right thing was the last thing he could do right now.

~*~*~*~

They bumped right into Alana on their way back out to the car, and Will felt her gaze examining the bruise on his face. He was glad when she didn't comment about it, "How are you doing, One-Eye?" She asked gently, offering a small smile when the man looked up at her.

Will decided right then not to tell her about what had happened when they arrived at his house. "He keeps having flashbacks. He gets lost for a minute in his mind and I think he's remembering." One-Eye looks at Will as he gives voice to the demons that haunt him, and then he looks away.

"That's really common with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. He probably can't remember too much, but as memories come back to him, they get overwhelming. I was thinking we should try to help him recover some memories of before he was captured, maybe he could remember where they got him from and we can see if there is some way we can contact a family member or at least get his real name."

One-Eye looked up at that, and then he looked to Will. He knew he was old enough to have memories from before he was captured, but there was none for him to recall. All of his memories were of blood, pain, and hunger. He wanted to remember, he wanted to have something nice to look back on. What would that mean for Will?

"Does that sound like something you'd want to do?" Alana asked him directly this time, and he looked away from Will to focus on her. He wanted to get better, he wanted to be normal enough where people didn't stare at him and speak about him like he wasn't standing right there. He wanted Will to stop looking at him like he was broken and see him as an equal. Of course, it takes time, but everything starts with one step in the right direction.

Will can't contain the grin on his face when One-Eye hesitantly nods his head up and down. _Yes_. He can communicate and he _wants_ to.

~*~*~*~*~

Any sort of law enforcement is a job where people always find a way to surprise you, be it through their darkness or through their good intentions. That's why he doesn't expect one of the local officers to come into his new temporary office and tell him someone is here to speak directly to, and only to, him. The man is young, mid twenties, Spanish, and above all he looks guilty. "I'm here because I have information about the man you found in the middle of the road."

Jack stared at him across the desk, "What kind of information?"

The other man swallowed thickly and looked away, "I dumped him there."

Jack holds his calm and nods, prepared to slap the cuffs on him and interrogate the bastard. But he's here, at his own freewill, and that must count for something. "What's your name."

"Leo Chino."

Jack excuses himself quickly and informs the head agents on the case before he comes back, "I assume you came here to turn yourself in, but I also assume you want to elaborate."

"I want to tell you what I know."

"I'm listening," Jack snapped, impatient.

"I work for Walt, I have been working for him for almost nine years. I don't remember exactly what happened, but from what I understood my parents sold me to him when I was thirteen. I'm from Ecuador. My job was to look after the fighters and get them ready for their fights, and then to dispose of them when he wanted them gone." He trails off, and Jack is too stunned to speak when he sees a tear drip down the man's face. "I know I'm just as responsible, but I'm here knowing Walt will have me killed when he finds out. Which he will. I was supposed to kill One-Eye, but I didn't want to be a part of another death so I left him somewhere I knew he'd get help fast. I also left the van where I thought you'd find it, have you found it? It's parked-"

"We've found it already," Jack replies quietly, and Leo smiles slightly.

"I was supposed to fly to Virginia and kill One-Eye and Will Graham to make up for what I did. These deaths are for nothing, and saving my life isn't worth more death Agent Crawford."

Jack is quiet for a while, "Where is Walt now?"

"I know where he last was, but knowing him he moved already. He has a huge network. He moves from building to building. I don't even know where they are, he never lets me find out."

Jack sat back in his seat and rubbed his eyes, "Will Graham is in danger?"

Leo bit his lip, "I don't think so, not right now."

How was all this going on right under everyone's nose? "Does he have more people?"

"Yes, more fighters. He does business with a man named Thomas who traffics women and children, there's many more."

"Let me tell you this, Leo. It'll be in your best interest to help us locate these other people and bring the leaders to justice. It will really help your case," then he adds as an afterthought, "What can you tell me about One-Eye?"

"Walt bought him from somewhere overseas, had him shipped here. He was there before I got there, but he was one of the fighters I was in charge of. I was a kid, I was afraid of him. Walt told me he'd had him for about a month and he was going to make him a lot of money, and I had to make sure he was well taken care of. I watched them do terrible things to him every day, and he'd just lay there all beaten up and I just tried to keep him from getting an infection. Over the years I grew to really like him, I admired his strength. Being captive for nearly ten years, he didn't have much fight in him anymore. I just thought he deserved his freedom."

Jack absorbed all this new information and nodded, "I'm going to need you to start from the beginning and walk me through everything. I need every bit of information you can give me on Walt."

~*~*~*~*~

Something is different when they get back to Will's house, One-Eye is different. The consuming feelings of uncertainty and discomfort persist, and he wants them gone. He wants them replaced by something pleasant and comfortable. He isn't in pain right now, but all he can remember is being in pain. The pleasure he remembered from being with Will the first time had been long since replaced by bad, muddled in with everything else in his life. He wants to feel that goodness again, he wants to feel complete and whole. It's draining, thinking for himself and navigating through the day like a normal person would. It's hard for him, being free to do what he wants even though he doesn't. No one is making him do anything, and he misses someone having power over him.

He sits patiently while Will fixes them something to eat, and swallows the anxiety medication Will hands him. It soothes the discomfort in his chest that he can't explain. He doesn't know where the sudden swirling of emptiness inside him stems from. Hearing Doctor Bloom talk about remembering who he was and where he came from made him wonder if there would be a time in the future that he would go back to his life before all this. What if he didn't have a life before this? Was there nothing to remember?

Would he have to put all this behind him and be an adult like all these people around him? Will he have to put Will behind him and live his own life, where he makes all of his choices?

"What's wrong?" Will's voice startles him from his thoughts, he looks up and stares at Will. Will sees him, he hears him without him ever making a sound. He understands exactly what he wants without a problem, but will he understand what he wants now, even when he doesn't? Alana had given him too much to think about, there was always too much to think about in this world. It was easier when he didn't even have to move without someone telling him to. Being restrained was easier, the pain was consistent. The weight around his neck was always real and grounding, he didn't even have to think about food because if it wasn't placed in front of him he just didn't eat. "Hey, look at me," Will insisted, and he jumped when Will gently touched his face. "What are you thinking about?"

He turned into the contact and leaned towards Will, pressing their lips together. Will wasn't the type of person to be in charge of anything, Will wasn't a bad person. He could trust Will to have control over him and not hurt him. The kiss is slow and careful, and Will makes no move to progress it further. One-Eye's mind drifts to being on a dirty floor, irrationally craving the affection of a kiss from a woman who had no desire to even have sex with him.

One-Eye takes Will's hand from his lap without breaking the kiss and presses it against his chest, "I'm not sure what you're trying to tell me," Will whispers against his lips. It's frustrating, he wants Will to be _rough_ with him. He wants him to take what he's offering and make him his. His teeth catch Will's bottom lip and he bites just hard enough to sting, and the groan he gets in return makes him shiver. He wants human intimacy, he can't remember having consensual sex but he remembers the sensations of it. Will's hand slides down his ribs and he exhales sharply and pulls away from the kiss.

"I'm sorry, I don't want to push you into anything," Will says quietly, and his hand is gone. It's frustrating, trying to convey something to someone and they just aren't getting it. He kisses Will again, and reaches forward to tug at Will's curly hair; bringing him further against him.

Will blinks in confusion but kisses him back anyway, trying to decide what One-Eye actually wants right now. His lip is bitten again, this time harder and he presses against One-Eye closer, "You like biting?" He murmurs against the stubble of his cheek and jaw. He goes lower, nipping at the skin on his neck where the bruise has faded so much it could pass for a shadow. One-Eye tilts his head in encouragement, and Will bites teasingly at his neck before kissing the same spot. He doesn't have time to brace himself when One-Eye leans all the way back on the couch and drags him on top of him, seeking out Will's swollen lips again anxiously. It all starts to click together when One-Eye spreads his legs to make room for Will to press against him, and he yields to Will's tongue when it invades his mouth.

"You want me to be in control of you," he voices uncertainly when he pulls away from the kiss, "I don't want to take control of this and make you do something you don't want to do. You're your own person, you understand that right? I don't have-" One-Eye is kissing him again then, silencing him with a hungry kiss while his hands work down Will's back. Will gives in slightly and presses more kisses to his throat and his bare chest. It's the first thing One-Eye always does, remove his shirt. Will never really understood why.

One-Eye is breathless beneath him, squirming when Will takes one of his nipples into his mouth, "I won't hurt you. I can understand you craving someone else to be in charge but it'll only be for pleasure," Will informs him when he lifts his head. One-Eye has this look on his face, it's hungry and needy; then there's a hand working it's way between them to relieve some of the building pressure in their groins. Will grabs the hand, and then catches the other and holds them to the couch, "No." One-Eye licks his lips and surges up to kiss him again, keeping his hands right where they'd been placed even after Will let's go.

It starts to really make sense then. One-Eye had everything about his identity and self-will taken away from him over night, and had it given back just as quickly. He'd been broken down and built back up to be compliant and controlled, he'd come to like the dependency of doing what someone else told you to do. "I get it now," Will tells him, and he smiles down at him quickly before rising up to his knees to pull his shirt over his head. When their chest rub together, One-Eye wiggles under him for more friction and Will rubs his crotch with his knee and grins when the other man opens his mouth in a silent moan.

As he promised, he doesn't hurt the other man. When he gets his pants down, he works his hand up and down the shaft and watches the other man tremble with pleasure. He gets distracted by the words _sexual assault_ that the doctor had told him about, and he feels sick to his stomach even as the other man cums against his fingers breathlessly. 

When a large warm hand brings him forward again eagerly and reaches down to return the favor, One-Eye's face twitches when he finds Will's erection has flagged. "It's not you," he reassures, and even he can hear the sadness in his voice. One-Eye frowns up at him and Will lays on top of him, feeling the semen sticking to their bodies. After a minute, he apologizes for being a buzz kill, and nearly considers broaching the subject of what the doctors found when they examined him; then he thinks better of it. Maybe One-Eye didn't even remember, not that it was something someone could just forget. Or maybe the bad experiences were what he wanted to replace with good ones.

They're peace is disturbed when the phone rings, and Will rolls from the couch with a groan to reach for it. "Will, it's Jack. Don't get worried, but I'm sending agents to your house. We have one of Walt's men."

Will stared down at One-Eye where the man was looking intently back at him, "Where'd you find him?"

"He just came walking in, he came here instead of following through with his orders to kill you and One-Eye. He was the one who dropped him off where he was found, and he left the van for us to find. He's had enough of this lifestyle and he wanted out."

Will barked a laugh, "Too late for that."

"He was sold into this life too, as a kid. He's twenty-two now, but his parents sold him into this big underground human trafficking ring. He was supposed to take care of the fighters, and when Walt gave the order to get rid of One-Eye, he gave him a fighting chance by dumping him."

"What's his name?"

"Leo Chino, I think it's a fake but I think he believes thats his real name. This whole situation is shit, Will. It expands worldwide and there's children involved. It's bigger than we thought."

"Leo," Will says allowed, looking for a reaction from One-Eye. He gets one, the man sits up and his eye narrows. "What did he have to say about One-Eye?"

"He came after him, but he told me how he lost his eye and he said he wasn't always a mute but it happened overnight. He said he watched it happen almost five years ago. During a fight, the chain holding them to a center post just hit him in the face at an unlucky angle and that was it. The knocked him out and finished taking it out. Said he woke up screaming for hours until someone knocked him out again, and then he just never made a sound again."

Bile rises in his throat and he kneels in front of the couch to be eye level with the other man. He looks at Will curiously, unsure of what's going on.

"I think with his help we might be able to find Walt and find the others involved and rescue some of these people, Will."

"I really hope you're right, Jack."

After they hang up, Will smiles at One-Eye, "They're going to get Walt, and we're going to find all the people he's keeping. Someone named Leo turned himself in." One-Eye frowns slightly and then looks away from him. Why would Leo come forward willingly? He can practically feel something deep inside him when he thrusts into some terrified woman. He can feel Leo's hand burning into his hip when he steadies him. The sting of a needle slipping into his vein, pulling on his collar so hard it cuts off his air and he chokes and squirms. Crawling-

"Hey," Will whispers, and when One-Eye blinks he's sitting next to him on the couch, "How about we try getting out and doing something? Not out in public, but just you and I. We can go for a walk," then Will's face lights up, "I have the perfect thing."  
~*~*~*~

Leo sits in cuffs in an interrogation room, his hands fidgeting on the table. "Walt moved everything of his to California when he got One-Eye back?"

Leo shook his head, "He still has a lot of business going on on the East Coast."

Jack nods and sighs, "Explain to me the business plan."

"His connections all around the world contact him with potential fighters, breeders, or raisers. He buys them but he has middlemen that handle some of his fighters, he only keeps close tabs on the best. He breeds the best with women and sells the children back into the system. Most fighters have multiple kids."

"We founds signs of sexual assault when One-Eye was examined, and he had a lot of drugs in his system, why?"

Leo shifts uncomfortably, "One-Eye lost his fight when Walt got him back, he kept getting his ass kicked. He'd just lay there no matter what we tried to get him into it. Walt wanted to get rid of him sooner, I had to do something to get his blood going. I got a hold of the drugs and started juicing him up. He couldn't…perform anymore so I… I wanted to help him out, make it easier."

Jack stares at the man across the table, and it's hard to imagine him doing any of this, "The rest of his life is ruined now, you do understand that. No amount of therapy can undo what's been done to him."

Leo frowns, "I know that, but I figured instead of killing him, he could go back and stay with Will Graham. No one involved in that life will ever be alright after."

~*~*~*~

Will stands in the cold water up to his waist, holding a hand out to One-Eye who stands on the shore. "Come in, it's alright." He looks a little ridiculous in one of the rubber jumpers, his arms folded across his chest while the dogs run back and forth. He steps towards Will and into the shallow water. He stares right at Will, stepping closer and closer until he's right besides Will, so close that he's pressed into Will's side. He's shaking next to Will, and he steadies One-Eye with a hand on his arm. "Just relax, fly fishing is peaceful."

He gets the line ready and sends the string out into the water, "You have to name the lure after someone you cherish. It's a superstition, if the person you named it after cherished you back, you'll catch the fish." One-Eye takes the rod from Will when he offers it, "Name the bait," Will prompts. One-Eye blinks and concentrates, searching his brain for a name other than Jack, Will, Walt, Leo, Alana, Beverly, Brian, and Jimmy and he can't even think of one. He frowns at the water, and Will touches his back lightly, "Don't think too hard about it," he stops wracking his brain and settles on naming it Will.

Nearly an hour later, Will grins in excitement as they carry the fish he caught back to the house. "This is going to be a great dinner, I'll grill it for us." The agents Jack sent are waiting outside when they get back, and Will waves to them as they pass. One-Eye showers while Will prepares the fish and some rice. When his phone rings, he tucks it against his shoulder, "Hello?"

"Hey Will."

"How are you, Alana?"

"I'm good, how's One-Eye? How are you?"

He smirks down at the fish, "Good, I took him fishing."

She laughs slightly, "That's good, getting him doing things is good. I was thinking tomorrow I could come by and we can try to get him to recall some memories. Jack told me that Leo has been telling him all about what happens to these people. He doesn't know where One-Eye came from, but he knows that the ones that came after him are usually abducted right from their homes. Not just them, their whole family. They're separated, and not all of them are spared. There's a good chance One-Eye had a family, Will. We need him to remember so we can help him."

Will swallows heavily, "I know that, we will see you tomorrow then."

When he turns around, One-Eye is standing there in pajama pants, his chest bare and his hair dripping. Will smiles at him, "Let's eat."

~*~*~*~

"He went to the police, they have the van too," Walt smirks to himself at the information. Leo.

"No matter, he doesn't know anything anyway. I want him taken out, he can't get away with this."

Jason nodded, "I'll have it taken care of."

~*~*~*~

Will had never seen anyone eat his cooking so enthusiastically, and he smiles as the man when he devours more than half the fish. After, he cleans up the dishes and then goes to find One-Eye, who's in the bathroom staring into the mirror. "What's wrong?" One-Eye looks at him and reaches up to tug at the long, unruly hair. Will reaches out to touch the damp hair that reaches down past his shoulders, "You want to cut your hair?" One-Eye must had looked through the medicine cabinet because he opens it and hands Will the cuticle scissors. "If you're sure," he says, and he leads One-Eye back outside so the free hair can blow away.

It's nearly dark out, and Will hits the porch light and pushes One-Eye down into a chair. Will never gets hair cuts until he absolutely has to, but he knows how to trim his own. He cuts the long hair short first, before he cuts the hair closer to his face and shapes it. He keeps it long enough that it will still hang over his face.

One-Eye inspects his work back in the bathroom when he's finished, his long fingers pushing his bangs out of his face before pulling it back into his face. His palm drops lower then, rubbing at his scruff, "Do you want to shave too?" He doesn't wait for some sort of answer; he plugs in the electric razor and hands it to the other man. Will almost reaches forward to help him, but One-Eye leans over the sink and guides the electric razor over his skin. Of course he'd shaved himself before, a lifetime ago.

Later, after Will helped clean the sink of rough facial hair and One-Eye's jaw is smooth; Will gives him his sleeping meds and goes to lay on the couch-only to have One-Eye grab his arm and pull him towards the bed. They cuddle together under the covers while Will plays with the short hair at the back of One-Eye's neck. He's asleep in minutes, and Will holds him close even though he can't find sleep of his own.

He rests with his eyes closed, listening to One-Eye's even breathing so closely that he can hear the exact second it changes. After nearly three hours, One-Eye starts to shake and breathe shallower, and Will presses his mouth against the ear closest to him and hushes him. The bad dream wakes One-Eye up and he tenses against Will before he blinks and gets his bearings. His features are heavy with sleep, his eye heavy and distant, "I'm right here, it was only a bad dream." The eye falls closed again, and he's asleep again in moments.

~*~*~*~

Jack wants Leo transported out of California and to a facility closer to Virginia. He wants him there for multiple reasons, and one of them is that because the man came forward and he keeping him here is risky. He didn't ask for this life, and despite that not changing his crimes-he didn't deserve to die from them. He should have the chance to appear before a court and be sentenced based on what happened to him. Maybe he'd get a chance at a life one day. He arranges for the transfer when he's sure they've gotten everything they could from him, and what they got was a location to one of the warehouses. As he assembles a team, he has escorts lead Leo out. The younger man thanks him five times before he's led away, and Jack doesn't know what to make of that.

~*~*~*~

Jack calls Will on the way to the warehouse to catch him up to speed. Will is sitting on his porch with the dogs while One-Eye studies the chessboard between them. "Hey, Jack."

"Will, Leo finally gave us a warehouse location, and in exchange he's being transported somewhere away from here. They'll kill him if they find out he rolled over on them, and we're on our way to the warehouse now." Will doesn't ask for too many details, he just hangs up and loses the chess game because he's so distracted.

They storm the warehouse with their guns drawn, shooting the first man who raises his weapon while three others put theirs down. Half of the team moves forward while some detain the two suspects and Jack screams for a medic. They were gathered around a woman on all fours and a man behind her. They scramble away as far as the chains on their necks allow, and the woman hides behind the naked man while he raises his hands in surrender. "Don't shoot," he croaks hoarsely, his voice shaking while the woman weeps behind him. "I didn't…" the man sobs then as the medics hurry to wrap them in blankets and Jack backs away from them. He fleetingly wishes Will was here to comfort as he can never be that person, it isn't his job to be that person. He moves on, focused as he heads down the hall to find three more men being detained, but Jack's eyes are drawn to the cages in the room. There's at least a dozen children, five to seventeen. There's two woman chained to cages, one of them holds a screaming baby.

~*~*~*~

"Hello?"

"Walt, we have to leave. Now."

"What the fuck happened now, Kyle?!" The man is panting into the phone, Walt can hear him running.

"The FBI found the hideout we moved into in California. They have Thomas and the women and children, they have the dogs. They have everyone. We need to leave the country."

All that money-gone. "Follow the plan, I'll meet you there." He throws the phone against the window of the car and beats his fists on the dashboard and Jason looks over at him, "We have to hurry the fuck up and do this and get out of here."

Trevor pops his head up from between the seats, "What happened?"

"The FBI raided the warehouse and got everyone, Kyle is following the emergency plan. We're leaving right after this is over." Jason doesn't slow the car down, and only jams on the breaks when they're in the middle of a road that winds around a turn.

~*~*~*~

Leo's leg bounces in the back of the solid black FBI van, his cuffs rattling together. He did the right thing, he reassures himself. He thinks of all the people that were suffering at the hands of Walt and his men and realizes he should have done it sooner. He looks up through the windshield as the van screeches to a halt. A red pickup truck is in the middle of the road, and his mind clicks into action when he realizes who the truck belongs to. "Don't stop the-" A bullet shoots through the window and goes through the drivers skull and lodges in the seat. The agent in the passenger goes for his weapon but doesn't even have it drawn before his blood splatters on Leo's face. He struggles with the seatbelt to reach for the gun at the agents waist, and the passenger door flies open.

Walt stands there, looking more pissed off then usual. For the first time since meeting the man, he isn't afraid of that look. He sits up straight and wishes he could turn to face him. "I wish I could take you with me and cut off your balls and watch you squirm you piece of shit. How very noble of you, ratting us out and thinking you could flee. Fortunately for you, thanks to your little stunt I don't have time for theatrics right now as we're pressed for time."

Walt raises the gun, _I did the right thing_.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I don't even know what the hell happened here, this chapter just took off and I couldn't even gather my thoughts for it.  
> Trigger warning for this chapter, if you're easily bothered... I'm sorry you can't know what happens but don't read it. Ask me and I'll tell you.
> 
> ....I don't promise this is the end of this series... but for now this is the end... Until inspiration strikes or if people even want it. Maybe you'll hate the ending or hate me and you'll have enough.
> 
> I said no happy endings, I don't believe in them in real life and certainly not in fiction.
> 
> No beta but I'll read it a few times and correct what I find.

Will calls Alana while One-Eye reads outside and he fixes them something to eat. He tells her about Leo and the warehouse they found, not surprised that she had already been informed.

"I made an appointment with a doctor for One-Eye, just a check up. I know her, she's a nice woman. We need to start focusing on getting him better. He's just stagnating right now," she changes the subject because she's more concerned with helping the man they already have then worrying about the others. Will sighs, spreading mayo on bread.

"When?"

"Later today, three. Has he been eating alright, sleeping well?"

He thinks back to just the night before, when One-Eye had been dragged from sleep with a nightmare despite being medicated. "He eats fine, but he has some bad dreams that wake him up. He falls asleep again easily… He had me cut his hair for him last night, and he shaved."

"That's a good thing, Will. Did you suggest it?"

He frowns even though she can't see, "No, he let me know that he wanted me to. He shaved himself too, I didn't even have to help him."

"That's a good start, a change in appearance is helpful when trying to recreate yourself." She waits for him to say something, but continues when she realizes he has nothing to add, "Tomorrow I'm going to come by too, if that's alright? We need to see what he can remember."

~*~*~*~*~  
It takes the teams nearly four hours to completely clear the scene. All of the captives need coaxing to come with them. The women won't leave the children, and Jack wonders how many of them are related biologically. The man they'd walked in to find in a compromising position sobs brokenly, the woman he'd been having sex with strokes his hair while they're loaded up into an ambulance. There were dogs in kennels, the ASPCA hauled them away as well.

Further searching of the warehouse, they had found multiple men chained similar to how they found One-Eye. One of them was dead in the chains, three others were too weak to move, another begged them to free him. Jack watched with a knotted stomach while they were all loaded into emergency vehicles and taken away. He gets a call halfway through, both of his agents and Leo Chino were found dead- shot to death. He feels hollow when he calls Will to update him.

Will picks up on the third ring. "We raided the warehouse… There were a lot of men just like One-Eye. There were a dozen kids, a baby, and women. They're all being transported to the hospital. We have some more of Walt's men too, they're going back to the station for questioning. I just got a call that Leo and his escorts were ambushed and killed… This whole thing is a mess, Will."

After everything they'd been through together, Will had never once heard Jack sound so… emotionally drained over something. "I have to go, it's going to take a lot of work to sort this out. I'm going to see if we can identify any of these hostages, find out where they came from. I have to interrogate the men we arrested as well, I want to find more of these warehouses."

~*~*~*~  
Will hangs up and looks over at One-Eye. They're out on the porch, Will is tinkering with a motor while the other man throws sticks to the dogs. "They found another warehouse, rescued a lot of hostages," Will informs him quietly. One-Eye looks up at him and Will offers a small smile. "They're going to try to find where all these people came from. They're going to be okay." One-Eye absentmindedly pets Winston when he rubs against him. Will watches him for another moment before he goes back to work, letting the subject drop even though it's stuck in his head. It's understandable that One-Eye might not want to hear about it.

"Alana called before, she made an appointment for you to see a doctor. Just to get checked out," he changes the topic conversationally, "Maybe we can do something after, if you're up for it?" He doesn't look up to see if the other man responded to him nonverbally. After a few minutes of silence aside from the dogs running back and forth, even the noise from the dogs stop. He looks up from the motor to find One-Eye standing over him, his expression unreadable. Will would be unsettled if it was anyone else. "What is it?" He goes to sit up, but One-Eye slides gracefully to his knees in front of him, tilting his head to see what Will's doing. "I'm changing-" He's silenced with a kiss, and after a second his own eyes flutter closed and he melts into it.

One-Eye kisses Will because every word from his mouth just… makes him happy. It's an indescribable feeling, having someone who's only objective is to ensure you have everything you need. Will cares about him, he can hear it in his voice. Something in his stomach tightens and he presses against Will until he leans back on the wood of the porch. Will doesn't resist, his arms come up to wrap around his back when One-Eye presses down on him. Will hadn't let him return the favor the other day, it had been bothering him since it happened. One-Eye doesn't hide his arousal, instead he presses it into Will's thigh and breaks away from the kiss to inhale sharply.

When he looks at Will's face, the other man is smiling up at him and a hand on his back strokes through his hair. "You look good with short hair," Will says honestly, and One-Eye nearly moans in response. He rolls onto his back and tugs Will on top of him, sighing when Will's hands find their way under his shirt. He can see Will's hard in his pants, and the realization that the man is in fact attracted to him excites him. He reaches down to unbutton Will's jeans, "They told me," Will blurts suddenly, and their eyes meet. "We shouldn't have sex," he says bluntly, looking away from One-Eye's penetrating gaze. He frowns again, slowly pulling his hands away from Will's clothing.

"I'm not saying I don't want to, I'm saying we shouldn't. When you were… unconscious in the hospital, they examined you," They're staring into each others eyes again, and One-Eye knows what he's going to say. "They found… evidence that you were…" He trails off, sitting back on his knees between One-Eye's thighs.

He thinks about the first time something was pressed inside of him, it had been an object that he was unable to identify. He remembered it hurting, feeling strangely full- but it also felt uncomfortably good. It would be something that would deter Will from having sex with him, even though it wouldn't be the same thing. "I just don't want you to think it's something you want, and then it turns out you weren't ready for that." Will looks so perfectly conflicted, his honesty is the most beautiful thing in the world. He considers his words carefully, and the only conclusion he can draw is that he loves Will. It's the cause of that feeling that swells in his chest every time Will looks at him, it's why he feels a quiet calm when Will touches him. It's so foreign to him, the concept of wanting something so completely and being able to take it.

His chest feels so full of words that he can not speak, so instead he shows Will. He kisses him again, thinking less about trying to convey a message and more about following that feeling that sits deep inside him. He tangles his fingers in Will's hair slides his tongue beside Will's. The man above him moans, and the vibrations go right through his body. He acts on instinct instead of calculation and one of his hands grabs a handful of Will's ass and his mouth wanders to Will's throat to suck at the soft skin there.

Being a human being with wants and desires is natural, the instincts everyone is born with can only be buried so far. Being afraid to give into them is taught, but he feels so whole in the moment that the rest doesn't matter. Everything that happened to him doesn't matter because he has Will and he can't remember loving someone as much as he loves him. He's desperate for skin on skin, and he shoves Will back to tear at their clothing. Will seems just as desperate, and their both naked in record timing and then Will is kissing him so hard he tastes blood.

Will has just enough mind to be thankful he lives so secluded before his mind goes blank when One-Eye's fingers twist his left nipple. He wonders if One-Eye was attracted to men before all of this, and he wonders if One-Eye thinks he'd been attracted to men. He'd never had the experience before, it never seemed appealing until he met this man. Perhaps it was their brokenness that brought them together. Will licks down his face and bites at his neck and collarbone, trailing down to his nipples. He alternates between bites and licks, soothing the assaulted skin with his tongue. He traces kisses down the long black lines of the tattoo, stopping to press kisses to scars along the way. One-Eye writhes under him, arching his back when Will breathes on the head of his cock. He's hard, pearly fluid dripping from the head and down the shaft. Will licks it, loving the gasping breathes One-Eye takes above him. Will holds onto his thighs while he sucks on the head. Strong hands grip the back of his head but doesn't force his head down. He brings one of his own hands down to grip what doesn't fit in his mouth; One-Eye's entire body is shaking with need, but he doesn't move to speed Will up.

He plays with him for another minute before he releases him from his mouth and crawls back up to kiss him. Their dicks rub together and One-Eye's hand finds his and guides it down between them. Will tenses when his hand is dragged down between them and presses into the skin soft skin just behind his scrotum. One-Eye jumps at the sensation, his hands clenching and his head tilting back. "Feel good?" Will breathes, mesmerized by the way the tendons stand out from the flushed neck. He presses his fingers lower, stroking them against his hole and One-Eye _finally_ makes a noise. It's quiet, nearly silent, but a moan bubbles out from between his parted lips. "This is what you want?" He's never been one to talk like this before, but for some reason the words just bubble out to fill in for the lack of words from the other. One-Eye likes it, he can tell. He doesn't press his fingers to breach the tight ring of muscle, and settles for just teasing the entrance with the pads of his fingers.

Frustrated, One-Eye works his hand between them and wraps his long, rough fingers around them both and strokes. One-Eye cums first, his body going ridged when Will feels the warm wetness hit his stomach. One-Eye tries to stroke him with uncoordinated hands, and Will can't help but smile slightly when he reaches down to finish it himself.

"I can't believe we just did this on my front porch," he says lamely, but One-Eye smiles at the comment and it all but melts Will's heart. They don't linger outside, both of them need to shower and change to make it for the appointment.

Will gets them there just in time, and he walks with One-Eye to the examining room and waits with him until the doctor comes. One-Eye looks so out of place in a paper gown, and his fingers strum restlessly and Will sits so he doesn't go to him and touch his hands to stop the fidgeting. When the doctor comes, he goes to leave, the man on the table watches him uneasily, "If it's easier for him, you can stay Mr. Graham. Doctor Bloom explained to me the sensitivity of the case when she gave me what history you had for him." Part of Will wonders if he should be embarrassed or at least uncomfortable, but he's neither of those things. He watches from the corner of the room while she looks in his ears and shines a light in his eye. He flinches away at that, "Does the light hurt?" She asks neutrally, flashing the light back in his eye. He shakes his head quickly, blinking at her then looking over at Will. They study each other while she works, her fingers gentle and efficient. She presses her fingers into his temples and the scars that took over his left eye. She works her way down, checking his jaw and his neck. One-Eye is completely still, his eyes locked on Will's as a distraction. She listens to his heart and has him breathe deeply.

Will looks away when she asks him to lay back, "I'm just going to check your genitals and abdomen," she explains easily, and Will looks up at One-Eye's face just as the other man seeks out his eyes for comfort. He's proud how calm One-Eye is through the whole thing, and he offers him a small smile while he gets dressed. The doctor asks to speak to him outside while One-Eye changes back, "I looked at his file, he's eating without vomiting now? Sleeping?"

He nods and shoves his hands in his pockets, "Yeah, he has some nightmares but he's okay after." He feels guilty about the strange relationship between them, they're looking to him as someone who's caring for this man and he's abusing his power. They think he's broken, Will just thinks he's strong.

One-Eye comes out completely dressed, and stands right besides Will again. Will swallows heavily under the scrutiny of the doctor, and he imagines people see them and picture a dog on a leash. He's anxious to leave, and he doesn't ask One-Eye if he wants to go eat something. They go to a small restaurant after, and One-Eye remains right by his side and doesn't look up at any of the people around them. He orders them both pasta, and One-Eye devours it without acknowledging that they're in public. Will is surprised to find that he doesn't mind everyone throwing them curious looks.

~*~*~*~

Alana shows up the next day at noon, and One-Eye doesn't look all that happy to see her. She coaxes him back into the house like he's a child, but Will holds his tongue. "Why don't we sit?" She suggests it like he can't follow whats going on, she takes the freewill from him. Will feels defensive, but he follows them silently into the kitchen. "How are you feeling?" She asks the other man with a soft smile, and One-Eye looks from her to Will and back. "How about Will gives us some time alone?" Will's hands tighten and One-Eye tenses at the suggestion. Very slowly, he shakes his head no, his face twitching into a frown. "That's okay," she reassures, and Will backs into the corner and stands in the corner and watches.

"We're going to try and help you recover memories," she explained easily, "They're in there, and even if you can't tell us verbally what you remember-it'll benefit you." One-Eye is sitting at Will's kitchen table with Alana directly across from him while Will hovers in the corner of the room. Will frowns at the look of uncertainty on the other man's face and imagines he doesn't want to remember. One-Eye looks from Alana to Will, his face neutral but his eye tells Will everything he needs to know. "I need you to focus on me, One-Eye. Focus on me and my voice, and the clicking of the metronome." Will studies One-Eye's hands where they rest on the table, and he can see them shaking with nerves. He holds his tongue from interjecting, he knows this is for the best. The man has to remember his life before all this, or at least how it all began. Will crosses his arms and watches One-Eye stare at the swinging bar of the metronome. "I need you to close your eyes for me and take deep breaths. Sort through your memories and work backwards from the clearest." One-Eye closes his eye and follows her instructions. "Think of each memory and how you felt, and as they get less clear-try to remember what you smelt or heard, anything."

He starts with that morning he kissed Will on the couch, and the memory slows the frantic beating of his heart; the feeling of the kiss from earlier freshening the memory of their first. Anything that came after that is fuzzy and spotty. He remembers pain deep in his belly, and always feeling weak. He remembers strange faces telling him he was in a hospital, but the agony is so bad he swears he's dead. Before that he remembers the van, he remembers the light above his head flickering and he's laying in the dirt shaking. He remembers pressure deep inside his body, twisting until it hit the right spot that had him seeing stars and moaning silently. He slowly lets his mind go further back, to the day they found him chained on his knees. His heart rate increases again, and he swallows heavily when he feels the raw pain from the brutal slashes on his back. His head fills with screeching when he hears shouting in the hall and suddenly the room is full of people. He wants them dead, he wants them to kill him. He sees their guns and nearly salivates at the thought of them emptying each and every one of them into his body.

Will watches One-Eye's internal battle with his memories, and the other man opens his eye just as his chest seems to tighten too much. Alana continues her mantra of 'you're okay' and 'you're safe' while One-Eye blinks quickly and looks to Will. "It's alright, try again." Will promised he'd stay quiet, so he just nods at the other man and offers a comforting smile until One-Eye closes his eye again and concentrates.

He breathes deeply and lets his mind take him back to right before the beating, Leo stands just out of reach of where he's chained to the wooden post. He smells blood, his own blood. Leo circles him strikes out at random with a bat, block block. Block, that's his weakness. He's fast and strong but he can't protect himself. He thinks before that, having sex earlier that day with some woman on the disgusting floor of his cage. He can feel his skin crawl under the scrutiny of so many and someone barks at him to hurry up. He's half hard and gives up, reaching between them to jerk himself off until his body responds.

_Fight like dogs, fuck like bunnies._

The first time they told him to have sex with someone, he cringed at the idea. The woman they presented him was nude and dirty, her hair tangled and matted against her head. She crawled right to him obediently, and he looked from her to the men surrounding them and back again. _Just fuck her._ He was prepared to resist again, but the chain around his throat jerked and the air was trapped in his lungs. She lays on her back and he knows she's done this before, they make her do this. He crawls over her and swallows thickly, dipping his head to kiss her. The chain on his throat tightens and he chokes and pulls his head back just as she turns her head. _Get on with it._

One time he was so hungry he was haunched over to ease the pain in his stomach, he can hear his breathing labored and wet in the silent room. His belly aches so bad he nearly whines when Leo comes in and the smell of something hits his nose and he salivates involuntarily. He swallows heavily and waits anxiously for the food to be put on the ground. He remembers hoping today wouldn't be one of those days where Jason puts it down just out of reach of his collar. Jason likes to watch him struggle to get the food, because he always can reach it if he just finds the right angle. He keeps his eye focused on the ground and convulsively swallows the rush of saliva. It's not Jason this time, it's Leo who crouches down and holds a crunchy roll to his mouth. He devoured it greedily, avoiding chewing off Leo's fingers and gulps the water so fast he coughs. "Easy." He looks up eagerly for more food, and the bread settles like a rock in his stomach when he realizes _there is nothing else._ The smell is still in the air and his stomach turns violently and he gags. _Panic because he's so hungry._ "I know you're hungry, I'm going to get you something else." He remembers being conflicted between begging for more food and not wanting Leo to leave him there alone. Leo stood from his crouch and One-Eye tugged against the chain on his neck and wheezed for air. "Stop, I'll come right back with something else for you."

Will can't stay quiet anymore when One-Eye whines quietly, lost deep in a memory. "Alana, he can't do this," he says urgently, completely captivated by the one and only sound he'd heard the man make since the day they met. "Alana, bring him out of it." His tone leaves no room for argument and Will comes around the table and directs his focus only on One-Eye and blocks out whatever it is Alana is saying. What if he can't snap out of it?

 _He's so hungry. 'You know the rules, you lose and you don't get to eat.'_ Leo snuck him more food, something warm that was the origin of the aroma he smelled. It wasn't nearly enough, but his body quieted when he was done.

One-Eye opens his eye with a gasp and turns into Will who is now next to him and he smells Will and the dogs, he's relieved. He turns to Will and buries his face into his shoulder and hugs him. Will looks from him to Alana and back again, she stares at them with an unreadable expression. The silence holds awkwardly, until Alana finally breaks it. "It's okay, One-Eye. Focus on here and now. I don't want you to get caught up in what happened during your captivity. We need you to think about a time before that. Maybe the last time you spoke? Your life before this?" One-Eye leans into Will who didn't leave his place beside him and doesn't even look up at Alana as she speaks. "You're very attached to Will," she says gently, attempting a new approach. "Does he remind you of someone?" Will feels him tense against him and he looks to Alana and shakes his head, this isn't going to work right now. "You are you're own person, free to make your own decisions. You don't need to look to Will for them, he can support you through your own life."

No one says anything after that, but it surprises all of them when Alana goes to leave and One-Eye reaches for her hand across the table. Her skin is softer than Will's, but she doesn't flinch away from the contact of his scarred and rough flesh. She looks from his hand to his face and he doesn't look away from the eye contact. He'd reserved it for Will only, but Will is right beside him-his hand is clutching Will's wrist to keep him there. He won't leave, even if Dr. Bloom does. She doesn't, instead she sits down and puts the metronome back on the table, "You want to try again?"

He doesn't know how to convey that he wants to remember all those moments, the moments before he was completely dehumanized. He wants to remember if there was a time that it was really different. He lets go of her but holds tight to Will and focuses on the clicking of the metronome and inhales deeply before he closes his eyes.

Will glances worriedly up at Alana but stays still and silent besides his friend, despite the disapproving look she's giving him.

One-Eye wanders back in his memory, refusing to let himself slip deep into hunger or desperation because it consumed so much of his time that all those memories were the same. He tries to remember the levels in order, navigating violent image after violent image until he can come across something different. Leo and Walt and faces he doesn't have names for crowd every memory, at least five years worth. How did he make it that long? He can't keep the timeline correct. He remembers the first fight he ever won, the way his head had throbbed and he felt sick even as Walt and Leo praised him. The next day he's strapped to a metal table under bright lights, the buzzing of a tattoo gun startles him and he jumps. _Mark him as one of mine,_ Walt had said, and he couldn't stop shaking. Walt ordered the man over him to wait a second, then he ordered Leo to blindfold him. In the darkness, he can only track the progress by the way the pain travels around his body. It feels like days have passed when they finally unstrap him… only to turn him onto his belly.

He looked down at his body when they finally released him, completely detached from the long black tattoo that tangled around his body like a constricting snake.

The left side of his face tingles when he thinks hard enough to recall a moment when he didn't have to turn his head to see something on his left. _His eye_ was in his skull at one point. In his mind he can blink it, move it. It means he skipped something, the moment when his left eye was blinded. He swallows hard and sifts through the feelings he can remember having about losing his eye until one fits an image in his head. It was a simple memory, there was no sob story to his blindness. He remembered fighting, the fighting itself is blurry and muddled, but the pain of the chain around his neck going slack only to snap against his face. He was so in the moment that he nearly didn't realize he could no longer see the man he was fighting unless he turned his head. He didn't even realize what had happened until the other man was pulled away from him and his own collar was pulled tight and he was yanked onto his back.

It was only when people crowded around him and he tried to blink that he realized something was wrong, and his hands instinctively came up to touch-only to be restrained at his sides. Then there was only pain, followed by darkness; a darkness that didn't leave his left eye even after he woke up. He remembers screaming, but he can not hear what it sounded like coming from his throat. What had they called him before he lost his eye? He never thought of it like that. Who was he with two eyes?

Will sits silently and pays close attention to the way One-Eye's hands clench and twitch on his wrist, trying to sense if it was too much or not.

He goes back further, but he can't remember seeing with his left eye even before that moment. He can feel it is there, but he can no longer remember it. He remembers fighting more than he did after his eye injury, but he remembers fighting with a purpose besides his own life. He remembers speaking, words just like Will uses. He remembers pleading, but in the memories the words are silent. He tries to make them out by the shape of his own lips, when he's dragged back to his cage after a fight, bloodied and in pain. He focuses hard, past the pain and the blood and only on the movement of his mouth. He can't remember the sound of his voice, but he remembers having one.

Will and Alana watch intensely when One-Eye's face scrunches in deep concentration and his lips move to form silent words. Will stares in disbelief and wonders where exactly the other man is right now, what he's trying so hard to remember.

 _Please, just me._ over and over. His pleases fall on deaf ears and Leo (He never remembered him looking so young) frowns at him and chains him in place.

He can remember Walt before that, standing over him. He filches when he remembers Walt _peeing_ on him to wake him up, yet he just starts to plead again. _You don't have to do this._

He doesn't want to remember anymore, but something inside him tells him he has to. Did he really think that he was going to be set free? Did he think he could fight for his freedom?

Did he not know yet, in that moment, that he would forever be a slave? Was he always?

Will and Alana watch when One-Eye starts to lose it again, his breathing shallow and his body shaking. Will starts to move to rouse him, but Alana intervenes, "Will, let him work through this. We are right here for when he comes out of it."  
He doesn't agree, but for some reason he listens.

 _If you do a good job for me, you will be set free._ Walt had said that, looming over him. Had he believed it then? He tries to listen for someone to say something that sounds like his name, what did they call him?

 _I'll do whatever you want_ he chokes, his English was tough to understand-he can feel the way the secondary language rolls around in his mouth. Someone is crying.

It's not him.

Who's crying? _Please don't do this_ He's screaming, he can remember his lungs straining for enough air to scream. He remembers fighting uselessly and begging. Crying. He can feel his face is wet, but he isn't sobbing.  
The crying turns to screams and he recalls his body giving out and collapsing to just not hear the screaming. But he hears it anyway, he hears the screaming and the begging and sobbing and _Daddy._

One-Eye jumps up from the table with such force that Will is thrown back and the chair skids away. He blinks at the room and hot tears are streaming from his good eye, why is he in the corner? 

The look of pure terror and grief on the man's face takes Will's breath away, and One-Eye's eye darts between him and Alana and the barking dogs and Will gets up quickly and goes to him while Alana herds the dogs out of the kitchen. "What did you remember?" Will grasps One-Eye's heaving shoulders and shakes him, "Hey, look at me. Look." And he does, he stares right at Will, then right through him. He reaches for a pen and paper from the drawer to their right and presses the pen into One-Eye's hand. The man clutches it awkwardly, making a fist around it trying to maneuver the tip to touch the paper. Letters are foreign to him, he can't remember writing anything (maybe he did earlier than he got in his memories) but the letters look slightly familiar on the page. 

_Daddy_ is scrawled messily on the page, then the pen slips from One-Eye's grip and he reaches for Will to sob into his chest. Hearing his own sobs makes him cry harder, and he doesn't even know what has him crying but it feels so good he hopes he never stops. Will gets his arms around One-Eye just in time to catch him as his knees get weak. The crying is anguished and heart wrenching, hearing the totally unemotional and silent man release such internal pain is the most terrible thing WIll had ever witnessed. Daddy. One-Eye was a _father_ and he'd just remembered something about his child, something horrifying. "Okay, okay," he soothes, taking majority of One-Eye's weight while he maneuvers him into the living room and onto the couch. He settles man into the coushions and goes to stand to get some tissues, only to be pulled back down roughly and kissed life depends on it. One-Eye's lips taste like salty tears, and One-Eye sobs into his mouth and forces his tongue out to seek Will's. Will can feel Alana's eyes on them, and he tries to decide how he can play this off and goes to pull away slowly; fingers come up to dig harshly into his hair while One-Eye's other hand scratches at his bicep. One-Eye breaks away from his mouth to swallow air before he presses tear damp kisses to Will's jaw and neck. 

Will's eyes flash towards Alana who stands in the doorway, her expression a mix between shock, sadness, and anger. Will only snaps out of it when One-Eye sobs a breathless gasp into his neck, nuzzling his ear and streaking his skin with wetness. "Stop, stop," he says gently, bringing his own hands up to keep the man from coming onto him further but not pushing him away. It only makes One-Eye cling to him tighter, his salty lips seeking his out again. Will turns his head to avoid the kiss and press against One-Eye's ear, "Stop, it's okay." He can't bring himself to call him One-Eye right now, that isn't even his name. He wishes he had a name that would ground him in the moment, something that was attached to his being. When One-Eye tries to turn again to kiss him, Will holds him tighter, "Take it easy, baby," he whispers directly into his ear. The nickname seems so out of place, but it has the desired effect. One-Eye inhales deeply, his head resting on Will's shoulder while he breathes through his tears and deflates against him. 

Alana appears next to them with his sleeping medication that she silently hands to Will so he can coax One-Eye to take the pills and rest. He falls asleep against Will in less than a half hour, and Will slips out from under him and retrieves a warm cloth to wipe his face while he sleeps on the couch. 

"He has a kid," Will breaks the silence between him and Alana when he leads her back into the kitchen, "That's what made him hysterical, he must have remembered something happening with his child." 

"It's not good for him to be here, Will," she chides, and she's angry, he can tell. "He's in no state to engage in sexual relationships," he inhales to cut her off, but she holds up her hand, "Even if you two aren't having sex, he's attached to you to the point that being away from you causes him distress. He holds onto you to ground himself in the moment, he's supposed to be making progress-not finding another person to submit to." 

Will swallows his angry outburst and sighs, "I don't own him, I didn't ask for him to be attached to me." He omits the way One-Eye encouraged him to control him, the way the other man submitted to him willingly on the couch, "He kisses me, he does it when he gets lost in a memory." 

She nods sympathetically, "It's how he copes, he's been brainwashed and rebuilt to be compliant and submissive. He does care about you, you make him feel safe but he needs to learn to stand on his own two feet in the world. He's a grown man and he's attached to you like an owner. We have no way of knowing if he thinks he has to act that way with you so you'll care for him or if it's what he really wants. He's in no condition to decide any of this right now, he needs to be in a stable environment where he can be monitored. He needs to work on speech and dealing with memories so we can find out where he came from." Will frowns at her, knowing where she's going. "He deserves a chance to see his family again, Will. It's only fair that he decides if he wants to go back to his old life or not after he remembers." 

"You're suggesting he go to a mental institution," he deadpans, looking away from her. 

"Not permanently. Just until he can work through all of this, then he can decide to come stay with you again." 

Will shakes his head, "I'm not telling him he has to stay there." 

Alana was relentless, "I'll explain it to him."  
~*~*~*~*~ 

Jack rushes all the samples to their lab, and Beverly, Brian, and Jimmy worked endlessly to test them all. They managed to get a match to one sample from the van, and Beverly moved on to missing person's reports to look for matches. Jimmy and Brian bickered quietly and worked through the rest of the DNA. Jack wanted everything done the same day, and it could take days to work DNA. "Will you two stop already?" Beverly barked, finally fed up, "We have all these people we need to find out where they came from, focus." 

None of them said a word after that. 

_~*~*~*~_

Alana left them to themselves, and Will sat with his head in his hands while One-Eye twitched in his sleep. It was nearly five, and despite the heavy pull of the medication- One-Eye had woken up and cried twice more. The first time startled Will and the dogs, and he jumped up from behind his desk and went to the man tangled in a blanket on his couch. Will helped him sit up when he struggled to breathe, and he managed to thrust the small garbage pail under his face when he vomited. The dogs whine in distress and Will can't stop shaking. The haunted look in One-Eye's unfocused eye stayed with Will even after he managed to get him to sleep again. 

He migrated to the couch with his computer after that, stroking the short hair on One-Eye's head while he looked over some files. He called Jack during the peace, fighting his own tears, "One-Eye had a kid," he informed Jack bluntly. 

"He started talking?" 

Will tells him about their session with Alana, trying to keep the emotion from his voice and failing. "We have no way of knowing what he was remembering. That doesn't mean he had a child." 

Will rubbed his temples, "No, I could tell. He had a kid, and whatever he was seeing was terrible." 

"You don't think we're going to find his kid alive," Jack says, and it's not a question. 

"No, Jack. I don't." 

_~*~*~*~_

Time seems to stand still for the following days while no progress is made. Slowly, the lab results make their way one by one back to Jack. Alana checks in regularly, and Will can't help but think she does it in order to gauge when would be a good time for her to arrange for him to stay in a facility. 

One-Eye alternates between sleeping and sitting up staring into space. Will quietly encourages him to eat, and sits close when One-Eye rests his head on his lap. "Tests are being run on everyone they found at the warehouse, and they haven't given up looking for more. We won't know anything until the tests come back," Will tells him when he seems to be paying attention. 

When he sleeps, his body twitches restlessly on the bed, and Will can't sleep because he's afraid One-Eye will wake up. He always does, and he seeks Will out blindly when he can't see through the tears. "I don't know what to do," he whispers when One-Eye cries silently into his shoulder, "I don't know how to make you feel better." 

_~*~*~*~_

Nine days since the warehouse raid, Beverly, Brian, and Jimmy have worked nonstop on the samples. They rushed matches for the samples on the van, and managed to locate the husband of the woman with the baby. Two children find their parents after being kidnapped as infants, and one of the men are reunited with his mother. 

Brian and Jimmy keep up the work on the samples, and Beverly decided to look back through unsolved murder cases. When Jack told her about One-Eye writing the word 'Daddy' the image that presented itself stayed in her mind always. She was determined to find that child. "You know, there's a good chance that it happened in another country, Bev," Brian said quietly when she didn't even look up long enough to eat. 

She just shook her head silently and started from the top. About ten years in captivity, and remembering being called Daddy. Specifically. The kid had to be younger, or it would have been dad. She starts with unsolved murders and missing children from three to ten years old, ten years ago. 

_~*~*~*~_

_His chest is too heavy, it caves in on his lungs and steals his air. Daddy, I'm hungry._  
 _The collar seems to tighten and he wheezes, can't even find the strength to speak._  
 _Daddy, why can't you breathe?_  
 _The air is so hot._  
 _His ears ring and he just wants to lay down._  
 _Daddy?_

Will must have managed to doze off, because he bolts upright when a scream startles him to awareness. One-Eye scares himself with the scream, and he jumps when Will appears over him. "It was a dream, I'm right here. You're okay." Will's eyes are heavy with the need to rest after being stressed for nearly twelve days now. The strain of watching One-Eye take so many steps in the wrong direction sucked the life from him. Even the dogs were having a hard time coping. He doesn't hesitate to get right into bed with One-Eye, and the other man burrows against his chest. 

_~*~*~*~_

Jack's phone rings at seven in the morning, and he isn't even mad at Beverly when he answers. "I found him, Jack."  
Her voice carries the stress of her tireless searching, her tone is empty and he knows the answer to one of the many questions that came from this isn't what they wanted. "One-Eye's son was found in the garbage… they tossed him out like he was trash," she spits into the phone, all the lightness her voice always held was gone. 

"Beverly." 

"He was five or six, a John Doe. His DNA was on file because they couldn't find a relative or any leads…" 

_~*~*~*~_

It feels like he barely blinked when he wakes up to his phone ringing, and he disentangles himself to go answer it. It's Jack, a phone call he'd been waiting for and dreading at the same time. "We've managed to close a lot of missing person's cases, Will." Jack starts, and Will knows the good news was coming first and that there would be bad news. There was always bad news. "A lot of families have found p and rubs eople they never thought they'd see again. And the ones we haven't managed to trace back yet are on the road to recovery." 

_They'll never recover, none of them will._ "Anything on One-Eye?" 

"Beverly has been running checks on old missing person's and murder cases of kids," he begins slowly, and the silence that follows makes Will's stomach hurt. 

"And?" 

"She tested a few samples from cold cases of some children. Nine and a half years ago, a little boy, a John Doe, was found in a dumpster in Washington. He was beaten, starved, and raped. Beverly was going to test every case that could potentially be related, and the sixth one she tested… Their DNA was a match Will. One-Eye was his biological father." 

Something stings Will's chest and his mouth goes dry. He has to swallow four times before he can find his voice again, "No one reported him missing?" 

"Nothing was reported to the FBI, it must have happened in another country. Wherever One-Eye came from," A dead little boy with no name, and a traumatized father who can't even speak. 

"How do I tell him?" He chokes, rubbing at his eyes. 

"You just tell him, Will. He has a right to know." 

_~*~*~*~_

Will rouses him enough to get him to sit on the porch and eat a scrambled egg. Will kneels in front of him and forces eye contact, "Beverly managed to find your son," he croaks, a tear slipping down his cheek. One-Eye stares down at him emptily, he doesn't even look surprised. Will can't bring himself to say the words, so he settles for "I'm sorry." 

They sit like that for a long time, listening to the dogs run around the yard. Will had grown accustomed to the look One-Eye got when he was going to throw up, and he gets out of the way just in time for him to vomit over the porch railing. Will holds the messy bangs from his forehead and rubs his heaving back. He shivers and slouches against Will after a few minutes, "How about you go lay down?" He doesn't, instead he leaves Will to go into the bathroom. Will lets him go, and he stays on the porch and watches the dogs run, oblivious and happy. 

One-Eye stands in the bathroom and stares into the mirror. He doesn't even recognize himself; scarred flesh, red and tear stained. His hands twitch at his sides, and his ears ring; his breathing is so loud it deafens him. He can't even remember what his dead child looks like, can't even remember a name. He didn't even remember it was a son that he had. Why can't he remember? He bites his cheek and his stomach twists with deep self hatred and frustration. He turns on the water in Will's shower mechanically… Will. 

Even Will couldn't make this feeling in his chest go away. He couldn't go on living a life like this, letting Will make his choices and take care of him. He can't handle having everyone look at him like he's too broken to be human. Will had told him healing takes time, but he didn't have time to wait anymore. Will didn't owe him anything, he didn't deserve to have to take care of him while he mourned the loss of a child he couldn't even remember. What kind of father can't remember anything besides having a kid? Did he have a wife? 

He closes his eye and tries to think, but he's only met with sharp hunger pain in his stomach that hits him so hard he has to open his eyes and lean over the sink. 

He didn't intentionally take the cuticle cutters from where he found them in Will's medicine cabinet, but the cool metal is in his hands and he's staring down at them. It's anticlimactic and eerily peaceful when he digs the sharp end into the soft skin of his left wrist. It doesn't hurt, in fact he doesn't feel anything at all when the blood wells quickly and heavily out the gash in his forearm. The ringing in his ears seizes, and he can't inhale but his chest isn't frozen. Everything feels… alright. He doesn't even realize he'd cut the other wrist until the blood is dripping onto his hands and the slickness makes him drop the cutters. Steam from the shower fills the room, and he steps in so the scalding water can soak into his skin. The blood turns the water red as it washes down the drain, his clothes heavy and soaked on his skin. He sits in the shower and lets the water soak him through while he stares at the blood on his wrists and it's the only thing in the world that matters right now. 

He can't bring himself to really grasp what this means; all he knows is that he's tired and for the first time he can rest his head against the cool tile without feeling like the entire world is ending. He closes his eye and it's easy to pretend he has both of them still, he can almost remember what it felt like. Having one eye didn't feel different than having two, but it was just a part of him that had been taken away- a physical reminder of everything that he'd lost. Apparently, a family was on that list too. His mind wanders, and he can remember the sticky fingers in the airport, a small hand that was always dirty. His head feels light but he doesn't open his eyes, he's afraid that if he does, the completeness he feels with the small, comforting memory will shrink and die. 

_~*~*~*~_

Will paces and feeds the dogs, trying to give One-Eye his space even though he can hardly breathe through his anxiety. Nearly a fifteen minutes go by, and he wants to call Alana but he doesn't want her to insist he be moved somewhere else. It was selfish, One-Eye should be wherever was best for him- even if that wasn't with him. 

When he can't occupy himself any longer, he stands outside the bathroom door for another minute and listens to the water running until he can lift his hand and knock. Of course there wouldn't be an answer, but One-Eye had a way of letting him know things without words. Will feels so…empty, standing there staring at his closed bathroom door, knocking as if his mute friend will suddenly find his voice and tell him to come in. A distinct dread settles into his stomach like a weight, something feels so wrong. It compels him to turn the knob and open the door, but he can't bring himself to step forward. His eyes are drawn to the small pool of dropped blood next to the bloodied cuticle cutters. His heart beats ten times, loud and pounding in his ears, before his mind catches up and he looks up to see One-Eye slumped under the spray of water. He jolts into action, turning off the water and dropping to his knees next to the tub. He grabs his face and pulls it towards his chest and checks for a pulse. A weak throb meets his finger tips, and he gasps for a breath he didn't realize he was holding. 

He fumbles for his phone in his pocket and holds One-Eye to his chest with his other hand. He dials 9-1-1 and tries to speak slow enough for the operator to understand who he is, where he lives, and that a man just slit his wrists in his bathroom.  
"Oh God," he's sobbing uncontrollably when the phone falls from his shoulder and he takes One-Eye's wrists and holds them up. He struggles out of his belt and tightens it around One-Eye's arm above the cut and ties a towel around his other arm. He only cries harder when he looks up and One-Eye is staring at him from under the hooded lid of his eye. "It's okay, an ambulance is coming. I'm so sorry I let you do this." 

One-Eye shivers as his soaked body starts to cool off, and Will holds him tighter. He hears them pull up outside, "The EMTs are going to come take care of you, just relax." He strokes the wet hair and clears his throat so he can call out to the emergency workers when the front door opens. One-Eye holds on loosely to his sleeve until he stands up to let the men work, he doesn't try to stop him. 

_~*~*~*~_

It feels like déjà vu, seeing One-Eye laying unconscious in a hospital bed. They had stitched his wrists and transfused him some blood, then hooked him up to meds and he was out cold while they dried him off. He numbly called Jack, who must have called Alana because she came running down the hall sounding like a galloping horse in her heels. He was in a chair with his head leaning back against the plain white walls when she stood over him. "What the hell happened?" 

He shook his head and closed his eyes, "He tried to kill himself." 

She huffed, "Yeah, I got that." 

"I told him that Beverly found out his son was dead and he went to shower." 

She's quiet for a moment, "Why didn't you wait for me to tell him?" 

He lifted his head and looked up at her. She didn't get it. Could he say, right here and now, that some how he'd come to _love_ this man? What was wrong with him? "I didn't think this would happen." 

"I know you weren't thinking. I told you he needs to be in a facility." 

His fists curl involuntarily, "I didn't want that to happen." He can't bring himself to elaborate, because if she knew the truth she'd certainly lose all respect for him.  
Did that matter anymore? 

"Well, now we have no choice," she softens up when his face falls, "He'll get the help he needs, and when he gets better, you two can be friends again. You can help him rebuild his life in a controlled environment." 

He nods mutely and bites his lip, tipping his head back to rest against the wall. 

She doesn't tell him she knows they were more than friends. 


End file.
